Re: What is a Good Study? Questions You Can Ask

[Guest guest]

Randi misses one of the more interesting questions lately: conflict of interest.

Does the researcher/writer have stock in the company that makes it, or have a

financial stake in the results, is the study being funded by a corporation who

will benefit from the results. Far too many 'studies' fall into this category.

Another problem of late is a study will take into account healthy males and

completely exclude women as test subjects, then extrapolate the results to

women.

Reading the context of a study before deciding that it's meaningful is another

problem - some supplements are based on a study of post-surgical recovery in a

limited context and then somehow considered to mean that the item is useful for

gaining muscle if taken orally....

The Phantom

aka Schaefer, CMT/RMT, competing powerlifter

Denver, Colorado, USA

What is a Good Study? Questions You Can Ask

http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/1658-what-is-a-good-study-questio\

ns-you-can-ask.html

Driscoll

Sydney, Australia

[Guest guest]

,

I encourage those interested in this topic to read the comments, especially

the one by mdw 3/15/12.

The article gives the impression that if sample size is not large enough, a

study is not valid whatever p is. I think that's misleading for people who

do not have a solid understanding of statistics. Sample size is already

taken into account when calculating p, so if p passes statistical muster it

is incorrect to look at sample size to further prove or disprove the study.

Obviously if the effect studied is real, increasing the sample size will

improve p (lower p).

Giovanni Ciriani - West Hartford, CT - USA

On Fri, Mar 16, 2012 at 8:12 AM, Supertraining International <

david@...> wrote:

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http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/1658-what-is-a-good-study-questio\

ns-you-can-ask.html

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> Driscoll

> Sydney, Australia

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