The Enduring Evolution of the P Value

• Autores: Demetrios N. Kyriacou
• Localización: JAMA: the journal of the American Medical Association, ISSN 0098-7484, Vol. 315, Nº. 11, 2016, págs. 1113-1115
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Mathematics and statistical analyses contribute to the language of science and to every scientific discipline. Clinical trials and epidemiologic studies published in biomedical journals are essentially exercises in mathematical measurement.1 With the extensive contribution of statisticians to the methodological development of clinical trials and epidemiologic theory, it is not surprising that many statistical concepts have dominated scientific inferential processes, especially in research investigating biomedical cause-and-effect relations.1- 6 For example, the comparative point estimate of a risk factor (eg, a risk ratio) is used to mathematically express the strength of the association between the presumed exposure and the outcome of interest.7- 9 Mathematics is also used to express random variation inherent around the point estimate as a range that is termed a confidence interval.1 However, despite the greater degree of information provided by point estimates and confidence intervals, the statistic most frequently used in biomedical research for conveying association is the P value.1