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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 08 2014, @07:19PM
> 1) I should not trust news sources about Science and Medicine,
Note the source of the problem was the press release from the original researcher. He's the guy who started the hype. To me the bulk of the problem (in this particular case) lies with the original researcher for that bullshit. He should be censured, if he's happy to be misleading in a press release today, he's already crossed an ethical line that should put all of his actual research under a serious cloud of doubt because it is only a small matter of degree between careerist lying to manipulate a naive press and careerist lying in actual research.
(Score: 2) by hubie on Tuesday April 08 2014, @08:27PM
Many times the PR does not come directly from the researcher, but from the company or university public relations office.