Stupid Health Reports

Matthew Grieco · **Posted:** Tue Apr 27, 2004 4:09 pm

I was annoyed by the search for Noah's Ark being filed as a "science" story.

Jolieblonde · **Posted:** Tue Apr 27, 2004 4:58 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Matthew Grieco:
I was annoyed by the search for Noah's Ark being filed as a "science" story.<hr></blockquote>Oh, but wait until they find the unicorn fossils onboard!

DominEditrix · **Posted:** Tue Apr 27, 2004 5:58 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by JJ:
Oh, but wait until they find the unicorn fossils onboard!<hr></blockquote> Nah - the unicorns got left behind. Remember that Charles Addams New Yorker cartoon from some years back? Two unicorns standing on a cliff watching Noah's ark float off in the distance?Then there's the Shel Silverstein song.The unseasonably warm temperatures in LALALand have done something to the synapses in the AllTrivia portion of my brain. D.

DominEditrix · **Posted:** Tue Apr 27, 2004 6:00 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by slummingreporter:
"Doctors who play videogames err less" is a recent favorite.<hr></blockquote>Because of the imprecise statement or a quarrel with the study?D

Matthew Grieco · **Posted:** Tue Apr 27, 2004 6:12 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by DominEditrix:
Because of the imprecise statement or a quarrel with the study?D<hr></blockquote>Some critics of this study have floated causality questions. Do video games help doctors develop better manual dexterity, or are people with excellent manual dexterity (such as surgeon) more likely to develop a habit of playing video games?

DominEditrix · **Posted:** Wed Apr 28, 2004 3:52 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Matthew Grieco:

Some critics of this study have floated causality questions. Do video games help doctors develop better manual dexterity, or are people with excellent manual dexterity (such as surgeon) more likely to develop a habit of playing video games?<hr></blockquote>Absent the actual data, it isn't possible to determine causality. I think, tho', that the theory that hand/eye coordination is improved with practice is pretty much a given. The question here would be whether surgeons who had not played video games previously demonstrated an improvement in their skills after taking up the practice. My pet peeve is the inability of reporters et al. to grasp the difference between statistically significant and real-world significant. I'm tired of reading X is "twice as likely to cause damage" as Y, when the studies show X does so in 1 out of 1,000,000 cases and Y does so in 2 out of 1,000,000 cases. There's a lack of perspective: Are the figures statistically significant? Yes. Is the bald statement of that statistical significance useful in real-world terms? No. D.

DominEditrix · **Posted:** Wed Apr 28, 2004 7:35 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by slummingreporter:
Implied causality is an issue with this sort of reporting. <hr></blockquote>The Experiment

Matthew Grieco · **Posted:** Wed Apr 28, 2004 9:51 pm

Here's a story so full of qualifications one wonders why they even bothered.

Juana Bean Editor · **Posted:** Thu Apr 29, 2004 1:05 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Matthew Grieco:
Here's a story so full of qualifications one wonders why they even bothered.<hr></blockquote>
Holy qualifications, Batman. You gotta love how that "news story" ends:Ronnie Horner, lead author of the other Gulf War ALS study, expressed similar concerns about the Harvard findings. "I have to withhold judgment as to whether or not they have something important," says Horner, of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.(insert *rolling eyes* emoticon here)

paulwiggins · **Posted:** Thu Apr 29, 2004 1:31 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by DominEditrix:
The Experiment<hr></blockquote>
And for any who don't know it
this one that the late Warren Berryman used to tell as a newsroom teaching device.[ April 29, 2004: Message edited by: Paul Wiggins ]

JPSheehan · **Posted:** Thu Apr 29, 2004 9:05 am

"I have to withhold judgment as to whether or not they have something important," says Horner, of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.Isn't that representative of standard structure for your basic slap-dash science story?
1) the bold premise
2) remarkable [though questionable] statistics
3) some phrasing of the question "Can it be true?"
4) some phrasing of the rejoinder "We'll just have to wait and see."Hoo-boy, what a cliff-hanger.

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