When the headlines tell us eating something means we will die "early" - or will we?

[PMRpro]

More reading - lots of big strange words and some statistics, but read slowly and carefully it does explain to us how valuable - or otherwise - those observational studies really are. And the end result is - not awfully because you can take the same results and the result will be very different depending on how the statistics app analyses them!

medscape.com/viewarticle/re...

It has been said for years that the most important person in the research group is the stats advisor - because you can get the answer you want by choosing how you analyse the results ...

[tangocharlie]

I remember a stats lecture at Uni where the lecturer was talking about Lies damn lies and statistics said he sadi statistically the safest thing to do is take a bomb on to a plane, because the odds that there will be two bombs on a plane are so much lower than there being one. I was born cynical but that cemented it in my mind. I wish I knew enough to be able to confidently say 'Yeah right' when I read some articles in newspapers. Experts disagree and contradict each other, not all studies are published, some sample sizes n= 3 or something. About the only one I really trust is Tim Spector but his answer is usually along the lines of 'we don't know yet'.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to tangocharlie]

I even have reservations about him! Because he is profit-driven now ,,,

[tangocharlie in reply to PMRpro]

Agree, I wasn't totally happy with my Zoe experience

[tangocharlie]

Reading this gives me hope. But like most 'good things' eg Plain English, it'll never catch on 😀

[Grammy80]

That sure answers the question why someone who drinks a pint of hard liquor a day and smokes two cigars lives to be 103. 💞