3 ms·

Link to the study https://jech.bmj.com/content/jech/early/2023/08/17/jech-2023-220523.full.pdf https://jech.bmj.com/content/jech/early/2023/08/17/jech-2023...

• oldgradstudent 3y ago
  Usually the variables correlated with socio-economic status. The vast majority of epidemiological papers are basically correlations with socio economic status.
  • redavni 3y ago
    There should be a public science communication standard that prevents journalists from misleadingly presenting correlation as causation. It is far too common.
    • WoahNoun 3y ago
      I don't see where in the article they imply causation. They use the words "linked" and "associated." In fact, they specifically call out they don't have a causal explanation. >As an observational study, the research was not able to determine what is causing the link between housing tenure and biological ageing, and the DNA samples analysed so far were only from white, European householders.
    • oldgradstudent 3y ago
      It's not only the journalists that are in fault here. There's a huge academic industrial complex generating this type of crap.
• marcosdumay 3y ago
  Looks like that to me too. The interesting thing is that, with 40 variables the expectation is that they would find 2 spurious correlations. They got unlucky and only got to publish 1. Also, with about 50 control variables that nobody has any idea how related they are to the outcome, I'm sure I could mess with the numbers until I find some 10 spurious correlations on the set. They quit too early. Still, those studies are important to lead future research into the actual relevant questions. It's journalists that shouldn't touch them.