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Study Shows One Third of All Studies Are Nonsense

Posted by samzenpus on from the 9-out-of-10-researchers-surveyed dept.

SydShamino writes "CNN has a report on new research to confirm claims made in initial, well-publicized studies. According to the new study, about a third of all major studies from the last 15 years were subsequently shown to be inaccurate or overblown. The study abstract is available."

1 of 391 comments (clear)

  1. Missing the point by kebes · · Score: 5, Informative

    I feel like alot of posters are not understanding what the study is... this is probably because the abstract (or, if you have access, the actual article) is much more meaningful than the CNN report.

    First, notwithstanding the many good jokes about a self-referrential study that will proven to be exaggerated, this study specifically checked whether highly cited clinical studies had claims that were later contradicted or softened due to other research. This study was not claiming that 1/3 of all scientific studies published were wrong in some way. It's worth noting that doing clinical research is very difficult, and that the error bars will always be quite large. It's also important to keep in mind that sometimes clinical research may be unduly influenced by financial pressures... and that clinical research undergoes very heavy scrutiny.

    So having 1/3 of all clinical studies be later contradicted should not make us worry that clinical research is being done wrong. We should be happy that so much verification occurs, that any erroneous conclusions will (probably) be checked again. One line from the CNN article rings true:
    Experts say the report is a reminder to doctors and patients that they should not put too much stock in a single study and understand that treatments often become obsolete with medical advances.

    I think that should be the take-home message for the casual reader. Science is doing its job of verification, but people need to stop jumping to conclusions (or worse, changing their life habits) based on the results of a single study. The results need to be double-checked. The study may have been a fluke, or have flaws, or the data may have been manipulated. Whatever the reason, we should not trust single experiments, especially where human lives are at stake!

    Having (partially) read the JAMA article, I think their result is sobering and useful. It really shows how intense the competition is in that field (which leads both to people making exagerrated claims, but also alot of pressure to dis-prove other's claims and get at the "right answer").