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In the last Statistics in small doses, it was concluded that the triangle of study designs can be misleading if viewed as a hierarchy. The clinical trial, sitting as it does above the observational studies, is considered by many…
“State IDs restaurant as source of disease” [Honolulu Star Bulletin, 16 August 2016]“State embargoes suspect scallops” [Honolulu Star Bulletin, 17 August 2016] The Hawaii State Department of Health immediately closed all Genki Sushi Restaurants on Oahu and Kauai after…
From time to time an interesting article appears or an interesting conversation takes place that deserves to be shared among fellow researchers. This Statistics in Small Doses describes an important coming-to-terms for scientists at the European Center for Nuclear Research (Geneva).
Inconsistent time points at which measurements are taken Correlation between measures taken at different time points become less meaningful A measure of limb functionality may be obtained from POD1 thru POD7, but a measure of postoperative pain may be obtained…
Many commercial software programs can handle all but the most esoteric statistical tests with simple clicks on a computer keyboard. There are even YouTube videos that show which buttons to click and when. Unfortunately, there is little emphasis on the reasoning that must be applied when choosing among the array of procedures that might be appropriate to address a study’s specific research objectives, and there is almost no mention of the importance of quality data collection and management. This month’s Statistics in small doses draws on actual examples from a recent review of study protocols and papers, and serves as a recap of previous “doses.”
In research, the value reflecting ‘no effect’ is usually 0 or 1.0. So, like traditional significance testing, if 0 or 1.0 is inside the confidence interval (CI), there is no significant difference between the treatments. If 0 or 1.0 is…
“In medical studies investigators are usually interested in determining the size of difference of a measured outcome between groups, rather than a simple indication of whether or not it is statistically significant.”Gardner MJ, Altman DG. Confidence intervals rather than p…
P-values are often sought as some kind of Holy Grail in science. Arguably one of the most controversial topics in statistics, we start our 2016 series of ‘statistics in small doses’ with a description of what p-values really are and…