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Bad Math to Blame for Hype About Older Fathers

posted by janrinok on Tuesday April 08 2014, @03:35PM   Printer-friendly
from the one-two-three-five-eleventeen dept.

Angry Jesus writes:

About a month ago a study (abstract) was published about how a father's age affects the psychiatric health of his children. Due to a misleading press release about the study's results, it was widely reported that children born to father over 45 years of age were 3.5 times more likely to have autism, 13 times more likely to have ADHD, 2 times more likely to have a psychotic disorder, 25 times more likely to have bipolar disorder, and 2.5 times more likely to have suicidal behavior or a substance abuse problem.

But statistical analysis is hard and non-intuitive, particularly for people who aren't expert statisticians. It turns out that the real-life rates of psychiatric problems are significantly less, putting this most recent study's results in line with those of previous related studies.

 
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  • (Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday April 08 2014, @03:52PM

    by ikanreed (3164) on Tuesday April 08 2014, @03:52PM (#28237) Journal

    They had a study saying paternal obesity was a primary correlation. I think I'm going to wait until the mechanism is discovered. Then these correlations can start being understood as co-incidental or causative.

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  • (Score: 1) by Hawkwind on Tuesday April 08 2014, @04:04PM

    by Hawkwind (3531) on Tuesday April 08 2014, @04:04PM (#28245)

    So we can look forward to the media pushing the obesity study while nary a squeak about the good news regarding age.

  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday April 08 2014, @04:58PM

    by VLM (445) on Tuesday April 08 2014, @04:58PM (#28287)

    "wait until the mechanism is discovered"

    "children born to father over 45 years of age"

    Fox News viewership skews extremely old, actually averages above retirement age, and they're fairly crazy, so...

  • (Score: 2, Funny) by mrclisdue on Tuesday April 08 2014, @05:39PM

    by mrclisdue (680) on Tuesday April 08 2014, @05:39PM (#28316)

    So, ultimately, it's all the fault of old fat guys: did my wife do this study?