Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

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.

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Bad Math to Blame for Hype About Older Fathers | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 26 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 2) by Zanothis on Tuesday April 08 2014, @05:48PM

    by Zanothis (3445) on Tuesday April 08 2014, @05:48PM (#28320)

    it is funny, the overall message i get out of this, is

    1) I should not trust news sources because...
    2) News sources are more interested in Hype than Accuracy.

    FTFY

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Underrated=1, Total=1
    Total Score:   2  

  • (Score: 1) by NeoNormal on Tuesday April 08 2014, @06:20PM

    by NeoNormal (2516) on Tuesday April 08 2014, @06:20PM (#28338)

    >> it is funny, the overall message i get out of this, is
    >>
    >> 1) I should not trust news sources because...
    >> 2) News sources are more interested in Hype than Accuracy.

    > FTFY

    Absolutely correct.

    The original story worried me a bit since I'm the father of a 22 year old that was born when I was 44... and a 26 year old that was born when I was 40. AFAICT, they're both fine.
     

  • (Score: 1) by sbgen on Tuesday April 08 2014, @06:24PM

    by sbgen (1302) on Tuesday April 08 2014, @06:24PM (#28341)

    Well put :-))

    --
    Warning: Not a computer expert, but got to use it. Yes, my kind does exist.