Reading health news, as an epidemiologist
When I read news articles about health research, I often wonder what I would have understood if I weren’t an epidemiologist.
I bet it would be similar to reading about topics I know nothing about, like mortgages, hip hop, and string theory.
I would easily believe that what I read is true, especially if the study is large, from a respected university, and published in a respected scientific journal. Written in a respected newspaper. Respected by my own standards, that is.
I imagine that the statistics would read like temperatures in Fahrenheit when Celsius is your scale. I may have little clue what the numbers really mean. Like I have no idea what a reasonable mortgage interest rate is.
Health news articles give a lot of details that hint at the merits and potential pitfalls of the study. But these hints only ring a bell if you’ve seen them before and know how they relate to the strength and weaknesses of scientific studies.
Let me illustrate what I mean.
May be linked
Last week, the New York Times reported that “severe gum disease and tooth loss may be linked to an increased risk for developing dementia” [italics mine].
