This blog explains why personal experience, or a series of personal experiences, can be misleading. Just because an individual got better after using a treatment does not mean that other people who receive the same treatment will also improve, or that the treatment is responsible – ‘regression to the mean’ tells us that experiences such as pain may improve anyway without treatment.
Tag: Oh Really?
Screening: earlier detection of disease is not necessarily better
Lynda Ware, Senior Fellow in General Practice at Cochrane UK, explains why detecting diseases earlier by screening is not always beneficial, and may – in some cases – be harmful.
Teapots and unicorns: absence of evidence is not evidence of absence
Lynda Ware explains that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence and why it's important not to mistake one for the other, in the fourth blog in our series "Oh really? 12 things to help you question health advice."
Treatments can harm
This blog explores a number of cautionary examples, reminding that all treatments have potential harms. We should consider the evidence not just about whether a treatment works, but whether it is safe. This is the third blog of our special series on Evidently Cochrane: “Oh, really?” 12 things to help you question health advice.
All that glisters is not gold: are new, brand-named, high-tech, expensive treatments always better than old ones?
In the second blog of our special series "Oh, really?" Robert Walton looks with a critical eye at the value of new and expensive therapies for medical conditions.
Expert opinion is not always right
Expert advice isn’t always right or based on careful consideration of the best evidence. In the first blog of our new special series '“Oh, really?” 12 things to help you question health advice', Cochrane UK's Director, Professor Martin Burton, takes us from experts to evidence.
“Oh, really?” 12 things to help you question health advice
Introducing a new special series of blogs on Evidently Cochrane: “Oh, really?” Twelve things to help you question health advice. In 2020, we're publishing one blog each month, offering 12 things to help you question health advice. The series is based on a list of ‘Key Concepts’ developed by the Informed Health Choice project team.