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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.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by sbgen on Tuesday April 08 2014, @06:21PM
I wanted to mode up this comment but decided to write instead. Please remember this - when you read in the press a story derived from a scientific literature, it is likely an overworked journalist is writing it. As such, they may not be interested in getting the actual importance of the study or may not be able to grasp the finer points. The scintific literature needs quite a bit of mastery of the arcane knowledge of the deep end in a given filed and a journalist may not have that. You will likely end up with a hyped version of the actual results with no resemblance to the original study. So, next time when you see this calm down and keep an eye out for corrections/corroborations that will certainly come out soon. If it is something worthwhile, some other lab will be on it in no time.
Take a deep breath, that should help.
Warning: Not a computer expert, but got to use it. Yes, my kind does exist.