Making sense of health statistics

Presidential candidates use them to persuade voters, drug companies use them to sell their products, and the media spin them in all kinds of ways, but nobody - candidates, reporters, let alone health consumers - understands them. Health statistics fill today's information environment, but even most doctors, who must make daily decisions and recommendations based on numerical data - for instance, to calculate the risks of a certain drug or surgical intervention, or to inform a patient of the possible benefits versus harms of cancer screening - lack the basic statistical literacy they require to make such decisions effectively, says EurekAlert release. A major new report, "Helping Doctors and Patients Make Sense of Health Statistics," in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a journal of the Association for... [read full story]