3 ms·

I don't get the downvotes. It is nigh-impossible to conclude something from a tiny sample, other than it's worth looking at more. But there are tons of things w

I don't get the downvotes. It is nigh-impossible to conclude something from a tiny sample, other than it's worth looking at more. But there are tons of things worth looking at more, most of which come out to nothing. Covid produced so many small-sample "promising effect" papers, most of which came to nothing at all. It's not a critique of the study, either. You can't recruit tens of thousands of people for every little study. So to rephrase, the headline could read "we found a relationship that probably doesn't actually hold, but just might".

tinco 6y ago
59 is not a tiny sample, they are being downvoted because they're demonstrating a lack of understanding of significance in statistics. The researchers conclude "Mothers of children with ASD have many significantly different metabolite levels compared to mothers of typically developing children at 2–5 years after birth." And they back that conclusion up by describing their analytical process. If GP wants to dispute this conclusion, then the GP should explain why their method is flawed.