4 ms·

"Could" is an interesting choice of word. I know researchers are cautious but that wording makes it meaningless.

by data_spy 2y ago

ajkjk 2y ago
Quite. "5 minutes of exercise a day could raise blood pressure" is equally accurate.
- Aurornis 2y ago
  The headline is about a study that showed increased activity was correlated with decreases in blood pressure. So, no, it's not equally accurate to say the opposite is "equally accurate" unless we're playing pedantic games where we ignore the study and pretend it's all just meaningless words.
  - ajkjk 2y ago
    That is what we were doing. We were complaining about the use of the word 'could'.
markerz 2y ago
Somewhat related is Betteridge's law of headlines: > Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no. It is based on the assumption that if the publishers were confident that the answer was yes, they would have presented it as an assertion; by presenting it as a question, they are not accountable for whether it is correct or not. I like to swap out any of these maybe-headlines with the exact opposite. It may help us, or it may not. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headline... From the article: > Just five minutes of activity a day was estimated to potentially reduce blood pressure, while replacing sedentary behaviours with 20-27 minutes of exercise per day, including uphill walking, stair-climbing, running and cycling, was also estimated to lead to a clinically meaningful reduction in blood pressure. Sounds like 5 minutes of exercise is where it has a statistically significant measurable impact in blood pressure, but 20-27 minutes is where it's a meaningful impact.
nuclearnice3 2y ago
Getting a little beyond the headline, we find they had people wear blood pressure monitors and accelerometers and concluded: > More time spent exercising or sleeping, relative to other behaviors, was associated with lower BP. An additional 5 minutes of exercise-like activity was associated with estimated reductions of –0.68 mm Hg (95% CI, –0.15, –1.21) SBP and –0.54 mm Hg (95% CI, –0.19, 0.89) DBP. Clinically meaningful improvements in SBP and DBP were estimated after 20 to 27 minutes and 10 to 15 minutes of reallocation of time in other behaviors into additional exercise. [1] [1] https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.124.069820 https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.124.0...

"Could" is an interesting choice of word. I know researchers are cautious but that wording makes it meaningless.

ajkjk 2y ago

Quite. "5 minutes of exercise a day could raise blood pressure" is equally accurate.

Aurornis 2y ago
The headline is about a study that showed increased activity was correlated with decreases in blood pressure. So, no, it's not equally accurate to say the opposite is "equally accurate" unless we're playing pedantic games where we ignore the study and pretend it's all just meaningless words.
- ajkjk 2y ago
  That is what we were doing. We were complaining about the use of the word 'could'.

markerz 2y ago

Somewhat related is Betteridge's law of headlines: > Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no. It is based on the assumption that if the publishers were confident that the answer was yes, they would have presented it as an assertion; by presenting it as a question, they are not accountable for whether it is correct or not. I like to swap out any of these maybe-headlines with the exact opposite. It may help us, or it may not. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headline... From the article: > Just five minutes of activity a day was estimated to potentially reduce blood pressure, while replacing sedentary behaviours with 20-27 minutes of exercise per day, including uphill walking, stair-climbing, running and cycling, was also estimated to lead to a clinically meaningful reduction in blood pressure. Sounds like 5 minutes of exercise is where it has a statistically significant measurable impact in blood pressure, but 20-27 minutes is where it's a meaningful impact.

nuclearnice3 2y ago

Getting a little beyond the headline, we find they had people wear blood pressure monitors and accelerometers and concluded: > More time spent exercising or sleeping, relative to other behaviors, was associated with lower BP. An additional 5 minutes of exercise-like activity was associated with estimated reductions of –0.68 mm Hg (95% CI, –0.15, –1.21) SBP and –0.54 mm Hg (95% CI, –0.19, 0.89) DBP. Clinically meaningful improvements in SBP and DBP were estimated after 20 to 27 minutes and 10 to 15 minutes of reallocation of time in other behaviors into additional exercise. [1] [1] https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.124.069820 https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.124.0...