People’s outcomes should be analyzed in their original groups

This is the fifteenth blog in a series of 34 blogs explaining 34 key concepts we need to be able to understand to think critically about treatment claims.

This blog explains how randomized allocation helps to ensure that the groups have similar characteristics. However, people sometimes do not receive or take the allocated treatments. The characteristics of such people often differ from those who do take the treatment as allocated. Therefore, excluding from the analysis people who did not receive the allocated treatment may mean that like is no longer being compared with like.

Hope may lead to unrealistic expectations

This is the tenth in a series of 34 blogs explaining 34 key concepts we need to be able to understand to think critically about treatment claims.

This blog explains that hope can be a good thing, but sometimes people in need or desperation hope that treatments will work and assume they cannot do any harm. Similarly, fear can lead people to use treatments that may not work and can cause harm. As a result, they may waste time and money on treatments that have never been shown to be useful, or may actually cause harm.

Tricks to help you get the result you want from your study!

Beware dodgy research (particularly when it’s pharmaceutical-funded)! This blog shines a spotlight on some of the appalling ‘tricks’ that researchers and sponsors can (and do!) play to help them get the results they want from their trials. From fiddling with the study design, to fiddling with the data analysis and ‘spinning’ results…