Research Methods · N-of-1 designs

Why most self-reports here are not experiments, and that is fine

Research Methods › N-of-1 designs confounding worked example data table effect size

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s.beaulieuTL2 Moderator17 Aug 2025#1

Why most self-reports here are not experiments, and that is fine — that is the question, and I have not found it answered plainly anywhere I have looked.

I have seen SURPASS-2 (N Engl J Med, 2021) cited in support of a claim I do not think it supports, twice this month, so I would like to work through what it actually shows.

My reading is that the trial is sound for its own question and is being stretched to answer a different one. I might be wrong about that, which is why this is a topic rather than a correction.

What I would like from this discussion: someone who disagrees with me to say why, with the section of the paper they are relying on.

13 likes 11mo

s.kravchenkoTL2 Moderator24 Aug 2025#2

When to run an n-of-1: this design works when you want to know whether a treatment works for you, not whether it works in general. For that purpose, it is efficient.

17 likes 11mo

gradient_fileTL2Member29 Aug 2025#3

For anyone arriving from a search: the marked solution above is the direct answer, and the replies underneath it add the caveats that make it safe to use.

0 likes 11mo

This topic was closed 120 days after the last reply. Closing is automatic for quiet topics so that a settled answer does not collect new questions underneath it. If you have a follow-up, open a new topic and link back to this one — that keeps both readable and gives your question its own title.

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