Category archive: Statistics

Dodgy statistics on airport security

Posted on April 13, 2010 by

Adam

Adam set up Dianthus Medical in 1999. He is an experienced medical writer and statistician, has a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Cambridge and an MSc in medical statistics from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

and filed under Statistics 1 Comment

I wonder if I should start a “dodgy statistic of the month” competition? I’ve just seen a good candidate for the prize this month, namely a story that “Nine out of 10 British people are happy to use full-body scanners being rolled out at UK airports”. Oh really? Surveys are, of course, crucially dependent on how you ask the question and the context you put it in (as well as how you choose your sample, of course). I suspect you’d … Continue reading →

Breast cancer screening and peer review

Posted on April 6, 2010 by

Adam

and filed under Clinical research Statistics Leave a comment

I’ve been thinking some more about the paper on breast cancer screening that I blogged about last week. Just to recap, a paper was published last week claiming that the benefits of breast cancer screening comfortably outweigh the harms. This paper was picked up by the media, who reported its conclusions almost entirely without any critical evaluation, simply taking the authors conclusions as established fact. However, as I previously pointed out, the conclusions are based on some extremely precarious calculations … Continue reading →

Breast cancer screening part 2

Posted on April 1, 2010 by

Adam

and filed under Clinical research Dreadful science reporting in the media Statistics Leave a comment

I blogged yesterday about how a story about the latest research in breast cancer screening had hit the news, even though the research had not yet been published. I noticed later in the day that there were huge numbers of tweets about the study on Twitter, almost all of which seemed to say that it had now been “proven” that breast cancer screening did more good than harm. It’s disappointing to see so many people uncritically believing what they hear … Continue reading →

Does Tamiflu prevent complications of flu?

Posted on December 9, 2009 by

Adam

and filed under Clinical research Dreadful science reporting in the media Medical writing Statistics 4 Comments

There was a very strange story surrounding yesterday’s publication of a systematic review of the role of drugs such as Tamiflu in treating flu. This made the lead story on yesterday’s Channel 4 News. The story involved the Cochrane Collaboration, the British Medical Journal, and Roche (makers of Tamiflu), and I have to say I don’t think any of them has emerged from the story with much credit. A previous Cochrane review had concluded that Tamiflu was effective in preventing … Continue reading →

EMWA conference in Frankfurt

Posted on November 17, 2009 by

Adam

and filed under Medical writing Statistics Leave a comment

Last week I went to the EMWA conference in Frankfurt, which once again was very successful and a lot of fun. I was teaching two workshops this time, including a brand new one on statistical analysis of binary data. To my surprise, the workshop sold out very soon after conference registration opened. This is unusual for a new workshop (as workshops are not eligible for EMWA professional development credit the first time they are run) and, let’s face it, statistical … Continue reading →

DIA clinical forum, day 2

Posted on October 20, 2009 by

Adam

and filed under Medical writing News Statistics Leave a comment

We’re now on our second day at the DIA clinical forum. I’ve been to quite a variety of talks: one session on clinical study reports, another on validation of computerised systems, and most recently on statistical analysis of bioequivalence trials, where there was much discussion of whether it’s acceptable to widen the acceptance criteria for bioequivalence if drugs have highly variable Cmax. It will be interesting to see what the new guideline on this says when it’s published, supposedly later … Continue reading →

HIV vaccine results

Posted on September 24, 2009 by

Adam

and filed under Clinical research Statistics 1 Comment

Today’s big health news story is a “breakthrough” in HIV vaccine research, as the results of a study done in Thailand are announced. At the end of a 3-year study, 74 of 8,198 subjects became infected with HIV in the placebo group compared with 51 of 8,197 in the vaccine group. That’s a vaccine efficacy of about 31%, or if you prefer, a risk ratio of 0.69. Well, on the face of it, that does sound like a breakthrough, doesn’t … Continue reading →

Bugs in showerheads

Posted on September 15, 2009 by

Adam

and filed under Clinical research Dreadful science reporting in the media Statistics Leave a comment

A schoolboy error in one of the health news stories from the BBC today provides further evidence for a theory I’ve recently been developing. The headline reads Taking showers ‘can make you ill’. Once you read more, however, you realise that the research on which it’s based provides no evidence whatever that taking showers can make you ill. All it shows is that various unpleasant bugs, such as Mycobacterium avium, can lurk in shower heads. Given that most people shower … Continue reading →

Conflicts of interest

Posted on September 8, 2009 by

Adam

and filed under Clinical research Medical ethics Medical writing Statistics Leave a comment

We are no strangers to conflicts of interest in the world of medical writing. The best known case of this is when a pharmaceutical company has paid someone to write an article about one of their own drugs. The conflict of interest here is obvious. Because it is so obvious, however, journal editors are very well aware of the potential for bias in this situation, so such conflicts of interests are, in the main, transparent and well managed. That doesn’t … Continue reading →

Oral cancer statistics

Posted on August 11, 2009 by

Adam

and filed under Dreadful science reporting in the media Statistics 2 Comments

Today’s news on the latest oral cancer statistics contains some schoolboy errors in presenting statistical results, and are a great example of how not to present statistics in the popular media. Let’s take the title of the article to start with: “Drink blamed for oral cancer rise”. Well, it’s true that oral cancer is more common now than it was in previous decades. It’s also true that we drink more now than in previous decades. And it’s true that alcohol … Continue reading →