quarta-feira, 22 de abril de 2009

A doença do analfabetismo estadístico

Os erros de médicos, journalistas e políticos na interpretação de estadísticas:

SUMMARY Many doctors, patients, journalists, and politicians
alike do not understand what health statistics mean
or draw wrong conclusions without noticing. Collective
statistical illiteracy refers to the widespread inability to
understand the meaning of numbers. For instance, many
citizens are unaware that higher survival rates with cancer
screening do not imply longer life, or that the statement
that mammography screening reduces the risk of dying
from breast cancer by 25% in fact means that 1 less woman
out of 1,000 will die of the disease. We provide evidence
that statistical illiteracy (a) is common to patients, journalists,
and physicians; (b) is created by nontransparent
framing of information that is sometimes an unintentional
result of lack of understanding but can also be a result of
intentional efforts to manipulate or persuade people; and
(c) can have serious consequences for health...--
Leia mais: http://www.psychologicalscience.org/journals/pspi/pspi_8_2_article.pdf

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