Evidence-appraisal glossary
Bayesian inference
Bayesian inference is an approach to statistics that combines a prior probability with the observed data to produce a posterior probability, expressing results as probability distributions for the quantity of interest.
Also called: Bayesian analysis, Bayesian statistics.
Unlike the frequentist framework built around p-values, it can state directly how probable a hypothesis is given the data, and it summarizes uncertainty with credible intervals. The main thing to check is the prior: because conclusions depend partly on what was assumed before the data, a well-reported Bayesian analysis shows how sensitive its results are to reasonable alternative priors.
This is a plain-language methodology definition for reading research. It is general education, not medical advice.