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Specific guide to this web site for:

 1.  Medical School
      Educators 
      in Statistics

 2.  Medical Students

 3.  Science media writers

 4.  High School & College
     Statistic Teachers

   Misadventures:

1. Harvard led MI study

2. JACC study 
   (J. of Amer. Coll.
   Cardio.)

3. NEJM cath study

4. Amer. J. of Cardio.
    review of literature

5. ALLHAT
    controversy 

6. Oat bran study

7. Pregnancy & Alcohol

8. Are Geminis really
    different?
      
9. Columbia 'Miracle' Study  
                                                 

Additional Topics:

Celebrex

Limitations of Meta-Analyses

Large Randomized Clinical Trials

Tale of Two Large
Trials

Advocate meta-analyses

Network meta-analyses

ALLHAT AUTHORS ARBITRARILY DISCOUNT THE SIGNIFICANCE OF DIABETES AND EMPHASIZE THE SIGNIFICANCE OF NONFATAL CHF 

The ALLHAT authors discount the significance of the 43% increase incidence of diabetes with the diuretic protocol over the ACE inhibitor protocol and the 17% increase in incidence of diabetes of the diuretic protocol over the amlodipine protocol. The difference in diabetes incidence was not associated with an increase in mortality during the trial. However, neither was  the increased incidence of CHF, which in contrast, the ALLHAT authors treat as tremendously important in their analysis. 

This difference in emphasis is a bias that adversely affected the conclusions of the ALLHAT authors. (Of note, the onset of CHF is usually associated with an increased risk of death occurring in the first year. The contrived nature of the ALLHAT trial induced CHF may have been the reason this was not observed. The development of diabetes, in contrast, would be expected to take a significant time for an effect on mortality to occur.) 

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