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The Ethics of Alpha: Reflections on Statistics,...
Journal article

The Ethics of Alpha: Reflections on Statistics, Evidence and Values in Medicine

Abstract

As health care embraces the tenets of evidence-based medicine it is important to ask questions about how evidence is produced and interpreted. This essay explores normative dimensions of evidence production, particularly around issues of setting the tolerable level of uncertainty of results. Four specific aspects are explored: what health care providers know about statistics, why alpha levels have been set at 0.05, the role of randomization in …

Authors

Upshur REG

Journal

Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, Vol. 22, No. 6, pp. 565–576

Publisher

Springer Nature

Publication Date

September 2001

DOI

10.1023/a:1014462116530

ISSN

1386-7415