Dr Gotzsche has written an excellent article. I just wish
to point out one minor statistical flaw. Some abstracts
seemed to be criticized for using the chi-square test
without continuity correction. The continuity correction
is an attempt to make the Pearson chi-square test behave
like Fisher's exact test. As Fisher's test is
conservative (i.e., P-values from it are too large) this
is not a good goal, and the uncorrected chi-square
statistic actually provides more accurate P-values in
general. See for example Agresti A, Stat in Med 20:2709;
2001.
Rapid Response:
A statistical quibble
Dr Gotzsche has written an excellent article. I just wish
to point out one minor statistical flaw. Some abstracts
seemed to be criticized for using the chi-square test
without continuity correction. The continuity correction
is an attempt to make the Pearson chi-square test behave
like Fisher's exact test. As Fisher's test is
conservative (i.e., P-values from it are too large) this
is not a good goal, and the uncorrected chi-square
statistic actually provides more accurate P-values in
general. See for example Agresti A, Stat in Med 20:2709;
2001.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests