examples of misleading statistics in healthcare

Lets put this into perspective with an example of the misuse of statistics in advertising. This can lead to poor decision-making due to misinformation. Ignoring the uncertainty of the collected data or numbers. We all need access to trusted sources of information to stay safe and healthy. Establish quality metrics to assess progress in information literacy. Incentivize coordination across grantees to maximize reach, avoid duplication, and bring together a diversity of expertise. Finally, how big was the sample set, and who was part of it? Registered in England & Wales No. Number don't add up 11. Going https://rigorousthemes.com/blog/misleading-data-visualization-examples/ Category: Health Show Health Moreover, this is a common topic appearing in tertiary introductory statistics courses, as well as courses on quantitative reasoning. Although the hope would be that students recognize the misleading horizontal axis, it is important to point attention directly to it so that students begin to learn to dissect such visualizations by being critical of scalinga common point of intentional or unintentional misrepresentation of dataas they work toward becoming critical consumers. For instance, of 100 patients that arrived in poor condition in Hospital A, 30 survived. The ASA continued, Because we understood that another competitors brand was recommended almost as much as the Colgate brand by the dentists surveyed, we concluded that the claim misleadingly implied 80 percent of dentists recommend Colgate toothpaste in preference to all other brands. The ASA also claimed that the scripts used for the survey informed the participants that the study was being performed by an independent research company, which was inherently false. Each of these sources may have other primary purposes, so there are advantages and challenges when they are used for the purposes of quality measurement and reporting. There are plenty of examples available, but looking to the world of hockey, a team that gets the puck in their opponents' end during a power play and just cycle for two minutes without taking a shot actually waste a two minute opportunity with puck possession. It also happens to be a topic that is vigorously endorsed by both opponents and proponents via studies. As businesses are often forced to follow a difficult-to-interpret product roadmap, statistical methods can help with the planning that is necessary to navigate a landscape filled with potholes, pitfalls . However, more often than not, data dredging is used to assume the existence of relationships without further study. Carefully review information in preprints. tristin mays big time rush; Do numbers lie? To get this journey started, let's look at a misleading statistics definition. And finally, if youre not sure about the content dont share it. An analysis of misinformation from five samples across the United States, Europe, and Mexico showed that substantial portions of each populationanywhere from 15% to 37%believed misinformation about COVID-19 in April and May 2020, representing what the authors call a "major threat to public health.". 19 Most Misleading Statistics (That Are Technically Correct) The Misuse of Statistics in Politics: Abortion | YIP Institute Going against convention 8. The Govenor race where one guy's 37% was WAY more than just 37% gravismarketing.com / Via reddit.com 4. Fig. Misleading p-values showing up more often in biomedical journal Once hearing this statement, doctors were skeptical, as they knew how dangerously addictive opioids could be to treat chronicle pain. Statistics can tell us about trends that are. Independent university study group, lab-affiliated research team, consulting company? This makes it appear that KFCs wrap has half the calories as the ones from Taco Bell, Burger King, or Wendys when is actually just 70 calories less. PLoS Med. Secure .gov websites use HTTPSA lock ( There are two take-aways when comparing the two plots. On August 6, 2020, Rachel Maddow of MSNBC tweeted Chart: Kansas mask counties versus no-mask mandate counties (Maddow Citation2020, August 6) along with a link to a plot (see Figure 1) created by the Kansas Department of Health and Environmentwhich was also shared live on The Rachel Maddow Show that same day. As businesses are often forced to follow a difficult-to-interpret market roadmap, statistical methods can help with the planning that is necessary to navigate a landscape filled with potholes, pitfalls, and hostile competition. Strengthen the monitoring of health questions, concerns, and misinformation. Making this a clear example of how the time period that we chose to portray can significantly change the way people will perceive the information. Data dredging is a self-serving technique often employed for the unethical purpose of circumventing traditional data mining techniques, in order to seek additional conclusions that do not exist. Now, if the issue here is not obvious enough, we can see that the Y-axis in this chart starts from 58% and ends at 78%, making the 12% drop from 2009 to 2019 look way more significant than it actually is. Lets look at one of them closely. Imagine you are in need of risky emergency surgery and have to choose between going to hospitals A or B to get it. The available information and expert opinion seems to vacillateone year fats are terrible for you and the next they are a health food. Listen with empathy, ask questions, provide alternative explanations, and dont expect success from one conversation. These are nine of the most misleading product claims. Here is a guide from the CDC on the myths and facts about COVID-19 vaccination. Truncating axes is a very dangerous false statistics practice, as it can help create wrong narratives around important topics. A trailer video introducing the Community Toolkit that can be used for educational and training purposes. Now, you might argue that The Times is telling the truth, as they are actually leading over their competitors. Expand efforts to build long-term resilience to misinformation, such as educational programs. Furthermore, those without the statistical literacy to recognize it, many times, are further convinced that statistics is not a reliable or trustworthy source of evidence. Type the claim into a search engine to see if it has been verified by a credible source. Let's check those mistakes. Research 101: Descriptive statistics - American Nurse Today So, can statistics be manipulated? Cherry picking data. Some useful questions to ask could be: What purpose might the Georgia Department of Public Health have had in manipulating the plot in this way? Truncating axes means doing the opposite. The problem was, the graph, which is depicted below, was built with a y-axis on a logarithmic scale instead of a linear one, making it look like the rate of change is smaller than it actually is. Misleading Graphs: Real Life Examples - Statistics How To Dietary supplement businesses frequently exaggerate the health benefits of their products. The scientists estimated that, of the articles on the top 10 list, the ones with very low credibility scores received 2.1 million shares, while the neutral articles received 2.6 million shares, and the most credible ones received 1.7 million shares. Misleading pie chart 4. Prevalence of Health Misinformation on Social Media - PubMed So, let's explore some interesting choices of using data visualization tools and discuss why they are misleading. We found 18 examples of false advertising scandals that have rocked big brands some are still ongoing and not all companies have had to pay up, but each dealt with a fair amount of negative. When the Georgia Department of Public Health posted this plot (see Figure 3), it went viral because of what may have been intentional data manipulation. The article, titled The Times leaves the rest behind started by displaying a graphic of the exponential growth of The Times website visitors from 2004 to 2006. If all this is true, what is the problem with statistics? Because "everyone who has an online presence today is a publisher" (Cairo, 2019, p. 103), inaccurate or misleading information and visualizations spread with unprecedented ease, particularly about health (Lawrence, 2020).People tend to perceive data visualizations about COVID-19 as objective representations of their numbers because they associate charts with logical arguments and . Annual Data 3. Columbia Journalism School professor Bill Grueskin even made a lesson to its students about the topic and used several misleading charts from the US news show as an example of what not to do when presenting data. Engage with your friends and family on the problem of health misinformation. Engage with your friends and family on the problem of health misinformation. newrepublic.com / Via reddit.com Advertisement 3. Citation2020; GAISE College Report ASA Revision Committee Citation2016), there are specific goals related to being a critical consumer or informed citizenwhich includes being able to dissect and make sense of statistical information designed for the general publicas well as content expectations around facility with accurate data visualizations. Why so many of the COVID-19 graphs you see are misleading Misleading Statistics - Real World Examples For Misuse of Data Seasonal flu, meanwhile, only kills around 0.1%. Using the pair of graphs in the first case, a question that could spur thinking about these two phenomenacounties with vs without a mask mandatecould be something like: What does this graph (Figure 1, the one with two axes) make it appear is happening? Misleading Healthcare Graph 19 of the persons respond yes to the survey. As an answer to the issue, Candice Broce, the communications director for Giorgias Governor. This is a Simpsons Paradox at its finest, and it happens when the data hides a conditional variable that can significantly influence the results. People who were more susceptible to . Although researchers have decried the need for statistical literacy among students and society for decades (Wallman Citation1993; Gal Citation2002; Bargagliotti etal. Misleading Coronavirus graphs. Misleading pie chart 4. Want to test a professional data analysis software? Increase investment in research on misinformation. Using the wrong graph 7. There, they speak about two use cases in which COVID-19 information was used in a misleading way. A controversial representation of this happened in 2014 when a graph depicting the number of murders committed using firearms in Florida from 1990 to 2010 was published in the context of the Stand Your Ground law, enacted in 2005 to give people the right to use deadly force for self-defense. On Sept. 29, 2015, Republicans from the U.S. Congress questioned Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood, regarding the misappropriation of $500 million in annual federal funding. Yet, closer examination will reveal that the chart has no defined y-axis. Regardless, many people will look at the graph and get a different idea of what the actual difference is, which is an unethical and dangerous practice. In this case 100/1.2% =88. How inclusive was it? The novel coronavirus has forced the world to interact with data visualizations in order to make decisions at the individual level that have, sometimes, grave consequences. Certain industries tend to have more issues with misleading claims. These are examples of loaded questions., A more accurate way of wording the question would be, Do you support government assistance programs for unemployment? or, (even more neutrally) What is your point of view regarding unemployment assistance?, The latter two examples of the original questions eliminate any inference or suggestion from the poller, and thus, are significantly more impartial. 13 Graphs That Are Clearly Lying - BuzzFeed News Purposely or not, the time periods we choose to portray will affect the way viewers perceive the data. Data Sources for Health Care Quality Measures For further thinking about this topic, I recommend this blogpost (Rost Citation2018, May). If you see this graph, you would obviously think the UKs national debt is higher than ever. After showing this plot to students, some useful questions could be: Fig. An official website of the United States government. You should only use log scales when there are clear reasons to graph order of magnitude. Another common misuse of statistics is strategically picking the time period to show a result. At a first glance, the graph, which is displayed below, shows a descending trend that starts the year the law was enacted, concluding that Stand Your Grown is responsible for the apparent drop in the number of murders committed using firearms in the years after it was implemented. Proactively engage with patients and the public on health misinformation, Use technology and media platforms to share accurate health information with the public. 19 Most Misleading Statistics (That Are Technically Correct) By: Cracked Plasticians April 20, 2016 Advertisement When the math adds up, the numbers never lie. It demonstrates the change in air temperature (Celsius) from 1998 to 2012. The name and date of birth used in this example are imaginative, used for illustrative purposes, and do not represent an actual patient. Misuse of Statistics- What Leads to The Misuse of Statistics Omitting baselines, or the axis of a graph, is one of the most common ways data is manipulated in graphs. Advanced technology solutions like online reporting software can enhance statistical data models, and provide digital age businesses with a step up on their competition. There are several mistakes made at the time of the data interpretation. This presents opportunities for statistics educators and statistics teacher educators to reflect on these (mis)representations and leverage them as teaching and learning opportunities to build statistical literacy. Is the language being used objective and formal? The below graph is the one most often referenced to disprove global warming. In this case, it can create the wrong idea of a product being healthier than it actually is. Providing solely the percentage of change without the total numbers or sample size will be totally misleading. The 10 most-shared health news stories of 2018. (Warning - Advisory A 22-page overview of health misinformation and resources to stop it. . During the initial stages of COVID, the general public was forced to consume scientific information in the form of data visualizations to stay informed about the current developments of the virus. Now, you might be wondering, how can this be misleading? Consider the following steps to determine if information is accurate: For more information on common types of health misinformation sources, check out our Health Misinformation Community Toolkit. Prioritize early detection of misinformation super-spreaders and repeat offenders. Surveys or studies conducted on a sample size audience often produce results that are so misleading that they are unusable. We apologize. Give researchers access to useful data to properly analyze the spread and impact of misinformation. The below chart expresses the 30-year change in global mean temperatures. In addition to our cases motivating discussion of association, the plots also offer an important consideration of how scaling modifications can mislead the consumer. It is a reliable indicator of an individual's graph literacy level, but . Survival Rates in Cancer Survival rates are often used as a measure of cancer treatment success. The time an upside down y-axis made "Stand Your Ground" seem much more reasonable. As mentioned, this is not the only time Fox News has been criticized because of these situations. Thats whats going on in your organization.. The example above is an example of selective bias; the biologists were recruited, not randomly selected. After a discussion, and a conclusion that attempts to make a generalized claim beyond the data (i.e., an inference; also a seventh-grade standard), the adjusted plot (Figure 2) could be shared with questions such as: Does the conclusion still hold when the plot is adjusted to accurately depict the two situations? Data (Mis)representation and COVID-19: Leveraging Misleading Data As we mentioned earlier, the sample size is of utmost importance when it comes to deciding the worth of a study or its results. In a similar fashion, once students have begun to develop an understanding of associationa topic beginning in the eighth grade under CCSSM, and appearing in tertiary statistics as well as quantitative reasoning coursesa time-series plot might be shared, such as the one in Figure 4 taken from this blog post (Acquah Citation2020, May).

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