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A tale of two observational studies – peanuts, coffee, heart health – and how...
I saw this coming as soon as I saw the BMJ news release about a study published in one of its journals, Heart. The BMJ, which seemed to have turned a corner recently, starting to include at least...
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BMJ back on bad track with its news releases: now gout & Alzheimer’s
Biostatistician Dr. Donald Berry of MD Anderson Cancer Center wrote to me recently, “My assessment of the landscape of observational studies, including much of epidemiology, ranges from bleak to...
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Trends in health care news releases that lead to public confusion
This past week provided plenty of examples of why we think it’s important to review health care news releases. Since our news release review service debuted in April we’ve reviewed 83 such releases...
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American Heart Association’s meal timing guidance isn’t ready for prime time
Should you skip breakfast? It might depend on what you’re eating. “For heart health, it’s not just what you eat, but when.” That was CBS’s confident headline about a scientific statement put out by the...
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Some news stories sugarcoat limitations of study linking skipping breakfast...
A raft of news stories this week covered yet another study that links skipping breakfast to health woes. The study was observational and offered up this association: People who ate less than 5 percent...
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Alcohol and cancer: What does a ‘500% increase’ in risk really mean?
[Editor’s note: This post has been updated. Scroll to the bottom to read the addendum.] Last night, NBC Nightly News ran a story about the cancer risks related to alcohol consumption. But instead of...
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Go ahead and sleep in this weekend, but not because it will ‘prevent early...
For overworked, underslept Americans, Mashable and several other news outlets provided some very tempting clickbait: “Sleeping in on the weekends might prevent an early death.” The claim stems from a...
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A venti-sized serving of misinformation in news stories on latest coffee study
If you want to get a sense of how tired readers are of the latest round of headlines pondering the health benefits (or risks) of coffee, then all you need to do is read the replies on this tweet:...
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Observations about today’s observational studies in the news
We write about the limitations of drawing conclusions from observational studies quite a bit. Why? Because there are ever more such studies and ever more news stories and PR news releases about such...
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What you need to know about claims that whole grains can prevent diabetes
Check out these enticing headlines based on a recent study linking whole grains to lower diabetes risk: HealthDay: Want to avoid type 2 diabetes? Eat more whole grains New York Post: Eating enough...
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