Why not to (over) emphasize statistical significance

Author(s):
Dekkers, O.M.
Published
2019
Publication type
Article / Letter to editor

Abstract

P values should not merely be used to categorize results into significant and non-significant. This practice disregards clinical relevance, confounds non-significance with no effect and underestimates the likelihood of false-positive results. Better than to use the P value as a dichotomizing instrument, the P values and the confidence intervals around effect estimates can be used to put research findings in a context, thereby taking clinical relevance but also uncertainty genuinely into account.

Date issued
2019-09-01
Language
English
Publisher
BIOSCIENTIFICA LTD
Is part of
European Journal of Endocrinology (2019), Vol. 181, no. 3, p. E1-E2
hdl
1887/122572
doi
10.1530/EJE-19-0531