Why current statistics of complementary alternative medicine clinical trials is invalid
(2018) In Journal of Clinical Medicine 7(6).- Abstract
It is not sufficiently known that frequentist statistics cannot provide direct information on the probability that the research hypothesis tested is correct. The error resulting from this misunderstanding is compounded when the hypotheses under scrutiny have precarious scientific bases, which, generally, those of complementary alternative medicine (CAM) are. In such cases, it is mandatory to use inferential statistics, considering the prior probability that the hypothesis tested is true, such as the Bayesian statistics. The authors show that, under such circumstances, no real statistical significance can be achieved in CAM clinical trials. In this respect, CAM trials involving human material are also hardly defensible from an ethical... (More)
It is not sufficiently known that frequentist statistics cannot provide direct information on the probability that the research hypothesis tested is correct. The error resulting from this misunderstanding is compounded when the hypotheses under scrutiny have precarious scientific bases, which, generally, those of complementary alternative medicine (CAM) are. In such cases, it is mandatory to use inferential statistics, considering the prior probability that the hypothesis tested is true, such as the Bayesian statistics. The authors show that, under such circumstances, no real statistical significance can be achieved in CAM clinical trials. In this respect, CAM trials involving human material are also hardly defensible from an ethical viewpoint.
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- author
- Pandolfi, Maurizio LU and Carreras, Giulia
- organization
- publishing date
- 2018
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Bayesian statistics, Complementary alternativemedicine (cam), P-value, Scientific plausibility
- in
- Journal of Clinical Medicine
- volume
- 7
- issue
- 6
- article number
- 138
- publisher
- MDPI AG
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85114275906
- ISSN
- 2077-0383
- DOI
- 10.3390/jcm7060138
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- c1d80236-b8eb-402d-b5f4-f4b9b6ee2d88
- date added to LUP
- 2021-10-05 12:18:51
- date last changed
- 2022-04-27 04:48:37
@article{c1d80236-b8eb-402d-b5f4-f4b9b6ee2d88, abstract = {{<p>It is not sufficiently known that frequentist statistics cannot provide direct information on the probability that the research hypothesis tested is correct. The error resulting from this misunderstanding is compounded when the hypotheses under scrutiny have precarious scientific bases, which, generally, those of complementary alternative medicine (CAM) are. In such cases, it is mandatory to use inferential statistics, considering the prior probability that the hypothesis tested is true, such as the Bayesian statistics. The authors show that, under such circumstances, no real statistical significance can be achieved in CAM clinical trials. In this respect, CAM trials involving human material are also hardly defensible from an ethical viewpoint.</p>}}, author = {{Pandolfi, Maurizio and Carreras, Giulia}}, issn = {{2077-0383}}, keywords = {{Bayesian statistics; Complementary alternativemedicine (cam); P-value; Scientific plausibility}}, language = {{eng}}, number = {{6}}, publisher = {{MDPI AG}}, series = {{Journal of Clinical Medicine}}, title = {{Why current statistics of complementary alternative medicine clinical trials is invalid}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm7060138}}, doi = {{10.3390/jcm7060138}}, volume = {{7}}, year = {{2018}}, }