Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

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

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This discussion has been archived.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.
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 zim on Tuesday April 08 2014, @10:17PM

    by zim (1251) on Tuesday April 08 2014, @10:17PM (#28486)
    "real-life rates of psychiatric problems are significantly less"

    Because there are millions of nutjobs running around the world and nobody NOTICES they are a nutjob until they do something like shoot up an army base...

    unrecorded and undiagnosed is not the same as does not exist.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2