On the high probability that a perceived lack of value of obtaining a p value will be detrimental to patient care! We are privileged to be invited by the Editor to comment on the article by Kanter et al.’ in this issue of TRANSFUSION purporting a lack of value in obtaining a p value of c0.05 (95% confidence level) when performing antibody identification studies. We are especially concerned that...

The objectives of this study were to diagnose the nutritional status of the elderly Brazilian population and to identify associated factors. The study used data from the Brazilian Household Budget Survey (2008/2009) for 20,114 elderly, whose nutritional status was assessed by body mass index (BMI). Associated factors were tested with the Pearson chi-square test and multilevel linear models. The...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of mother-infant early skin-to-skin contact on breastfeeding behavior of infants. STUDY DESIGN A randomized controlled trial. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY The study was conducted in the Department of Obstetrics of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad, from November to December 2009. METHODOLOGY Eligible mothers were assessed for the successful ...

Within multiple fields alarming reproducibility problems are now obvious to most: The majority of the reported effects are either false positives or the population effect size is much smaller than expected based on the initial studies (e.g., Ioannidis, 2005; Button et al., 2013; Open Science Collaboration, 2015; Baker, 2016; Nichols et al., 2017). Assuming that neither outright scientific fraud...

The most elementary statistical test is the paired samples t-test with just two pairs. Here the data set to be analysed consists of two numbers (the two paired differences), and the statistical test examines whether the population mean is zero. This test can be derived in a surprisingly fast and intuitive manner by plotting one number against the other on a piece of graph paper, then joining th...

BACKGROUND Measuring instruments should have their scientific and clinical value evaluated in different populations. The handgrip strength test is widely used, however little has been investigated about its reliability when used in elderly with dementia and the right stage wich its use should be avoided. OBJECTIVES To evaluate the test-retest reliability of the handgrip strength test in elder...

Methods We retrospectively analyzed the clinical files of all pediatric pts treated with omalizumab from December 2009 to July 2013. The evaluated parameters included: adverse reactions to omalizumab, clinical evolution, Asthma Control Test (ACT) and Severity Scoring of Atopic Dermatitis (SCORAD) score evolution and medication decrease. Statistical significance was defined by a p value in the a...

INTRODUCTION Lipid-lowering drugs preserve vision and reduce the risk of hard exudates in clinically-significant macular edema(CSME) in diabetics with an abnormal lipid profile. But their role in reducing CSME in diabetics with a normal lipid profile is not yet known. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the role of atorvastatin in CSME in diabetics with a normal lipid profile. MATERIALS AND METHODS A pro...

In a mathematical approach to hypothesis tests, we start with a clearly defined set of hypotheses and choose the test with the best properties for those hypotheses. In practice, we often start with less precise hypotheses. For example, often a researcher wants to know which of two groups generally has the larger responses, and either a t-test or a Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney (WMW) test could be accep...

Timed UP and Go Test (TUG) is conventionally used as predictor of falls in adults. Routine daily activities include multiple tasks performed concurrently. When two or more tasks (Dual/Triple test) needed to be carried out concurrently, task performance declined at least in one of them. Our study aimed to find temporal and demographic variations in the performance after adding a cognitive, motor...