Face validity
The extent to which a measurement instrument appears to measure what it is intended to measure.

Facial telangiectasia
Dilated superficial capillary blood vessels on the cheeks, nose, forehead, and neck.

Fail-safe N
The minimum number of undetected studies with negative results that would be needed to change the conclusions of a meta-analysis. A small fail-safe N suggests that the conclusion of the meta-analysis may be susceptible to publication bias.

False negative
Those who have the target disorder but the test incorrectly identifies them as not having it.

False positive
Those who do not have the target disorder, but the test incorrectly identifies them as having it.

Family Evaluation of Hospice Care Survey
A 61-item postdeath survey designed to assess the quality of hospice care provision from the perspective of family caregivers. Hospices that submit survey data to the US National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization receive quarterly reports that include individual hospice results plus state and national results for comparison. For more information, see the following article for the survey: Connor SR, Teno J, Spence C, Smith N. Family evaluation of hospice care: results from voluntary submission of data via website. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2005;30(1):9-17. [PMID: 16043002]

Family Medical Leave Act of 1993
A US law that guarantees unpaid leave to care for a seriously ill spouse, son, daughter, or parent.

Fatigue
Weariness or exhaustion leading to reduced ability to perform physical or psychological tasks.

Fatigue Symptom Inventory
Multidimensional scale for assessing fatigue. Includes general fatigue, physical fatigue, mental fatigue, reduced motivation, and reduced activity. For more information, see the following article for the inventory: Hann DM, Jacobsen PB, Azzarello LM, et al. Measurement of fatigue in cancer patients: development and validation of the Fatigue Symptom Inventory. Qual Life Res. 1998;7(4):301-310. [PMID: 9610214]

Feedback effect
1. The impact of performance evaluations on clinicians’ behavior. 2. The improvement seen in medical decision because of performance evaluation and feedback.

Feeling thermometer
A feeling thermometer is a visual analogue scale presented as a thermometer, typically with markings from 0 to 100, with 0 representing death and 100 full health. Respondents use the thermometer to indicate their utility rating of their health state or of a hypothetical health state.

FICA
Acronym for remembering basic historical information regarding spirituality for all patients: F, faith and beliefs; I, importance of spirituality in the patient’s life; C, spiritual community of support; A, how does the patient wish spiritual issues to be addressed in his/her care.

First Score instrument
An instrument that predicts survival of patients with cancer who are receiving radiation therapy as the sole treatment.

Five Wishes
An advance care directive created by the nonprofit organization Aging with Dignity, Five Wishes is written in patient-friendly language. It is designed to let patients’ family and physicians know (1) who they want to make health care decisions for them when they are unable; (2) the kind of medical treatment they want or do not want; (3) how comfortable they want to be kept (relative to alertness, used for purposes of titrating pain medication); (4) how they want people to treat them; and (5) what they want their loved ones to know. Five Wishes meets the legal requirements for an advance care directive in 42 states and can be used to supplement other advance care directives in all 50 states and elsewhere. For more information, see the following Web site for the organization: http://www.agingwithdignity.org/five-wishes.php.

Fixed-effects models
A model to generate a summary estimate of the magnitude of effect in a meta-analysis that restricts inferences to the set of studies included in the metaanalysis and assumes that a single true value underlies all of the primary study results. The assumption is that if all studies were infinitely large, they would yield identical estimates of effect; thus, observed estimates of effect differ from one another only because of random error. This model takes only within-study variation into account and not between-study variation.

Flick sign
When asking the patient, "What do you actually do with your hand(s) when the symptoms are at their worst?" the patient demonstrates a flicking movement of the wrist and hand, similar to that used in shaking down a thermometer.

Focus group
A small group of individuals (typically gatherings of four to eight people with similar background or experience) who meet together and are asked questions by a moderator about a given topic.

Follicular Lymphoma International Prognostic Index
A clinical tool to aid in predicting the prognosis of patients with follicular lymphoma. The prognostic factors include patient age, stage, number of lymph node areas involved, serum hemoglobin level, and serum lactate dehydrogenase level. For more information, see the following article for the index: Solal-Céligny, Roy P, Colombat P, et al. Follicular lymphoma international prognostic index. Blood. 2004;104(5):1258-1265. [PMID: 15126323]

Follow-up
The extent to which investigators are aware of the outcome in every patient who participated in a study.

Follow-up (complete)
The investigators are aware of the outcome in every patient who participated in a study.

Foreground questions
These clinical questions are more commonly asked by seasoned clinicians. They are questions asked when browsing the literature (eg, what important new information should I know to optimally treat my patients?) or when problem solving (eg, defining specific questions raised in caring for patients, and then consulting the literature to resolve these problems).

Frailty
A diminished capacity to withstand stress that places individuals at risk for adverse health outcomes. Frailty is progressive, is associated with chronic disease, worsens with advancing age, and is often marked by a transition from independence in activities of daily living to dependence on caregivers.

Frankel grading system
A useful system for functional assessment of the spinal cord that consists of 5 grades: (A) complete paraplegia, (B) only sensory function, (C) nonambulation, (D) ambulation, and (E) no neurologic symptoms or signs.

Fremitus
The palpation of low-frequency vibrations in the patient's body.

Frequentist analysis
A statistical approach that places the emphasis on available data (conventional approach to statistical analysis, contrast with Bayesian).

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD)
Dementia that has insidious onset and gradual progression, early decline in social interpersonal conduct, early emotional blunting, and early loss of insight.

Full code
Medical jargon meaning that the patient wants everything possible done to prolong his/her life, including cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy Fatigue (FACIT-F)
One of several quality-of-life questionnaires focused on the management of chronic illness, this questionnaire specifically addresses fatigue. For more information, see the following Web site for the questionnaires: http://www.facit.org/FACITOrg/Questionnaires.

Funnel plot
A graphic technique for assessing the possibility of publication bias in a systematic review. The effect measure is typically plotted on the horizontal axis and a measure of the random error associated with each study on the vertical axis. In the absence of publication bias, because of sampling variability, the graph should have the shape of a funnel. If there is bias against the publication of null results or results showing an adverse effect of the intervention, one quadrant of the funnel plot will be partially or completely missing.