Healthy Skepticism Library item: 2659

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Ioannidis J.
Why Most Published Research Findings Are False
PLoS Medicine ( Public Library of Science) 2005 Aug 31
http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124

Keywords:
research

Notes:

Ralph Faggotter’s Comments:
If you understand all of this essay, you’re doing better than me.
However the jist of it is that a lot of published studies which seem to indicate a positive effect of a particular treatment for a given condition are actually mis-leading for a number of reasons.
Questions which need to be asked are- How big was the study? How many groups are researching the same issues? Who is funding the study? Who stands to benefit from a positive result? How many different parameters are being analysed in the study? How clear were the aims of the study before it started? How big was the alleged benefit of the treatment?
The answers to these questions often leave the accuracy of the results in doubt.