0
komentar
 |
| ajax amsterdam jersey 2012-2013 |
Kamis, 28 Juni 2012
New Study: Is a Calorie a Calorie?
A new study in JAMA led by Dr. Cara B. Ebbeling and colleagues purports to challenge the idea that all calories are equally fattening (1). Let's have a look. When thinking about the role of calorie intake in body fatness, there are basically three camps:
1. Calories don’t matter at all, only diet composition matters.
2. Calories are the only thing that matters, and diet composition is irrelevant.
3. Calories matter, but diet composition may also play a role.
The first one is an odd position that is not very well populated. The second one has a lot of adherents in the research world, and there’s enough evidence to make a good case for it. It’s represented by the phrase ‘a calorie is a calorie’, i.e. all calories are equally fattening. #1 and #2 are both extreme positions, and as such they get a lot of attention. But the third group, although less vocal, may be closest to the truth.
Read more »
1. Calories don’t matter at all, only diet composition matters.
2. Calories are the only thing that matters, and diet composition is irrelevant.
3. Calories matter, but diet composition may also play a role.
The first one is an odd position that is not very well populated. The second one has a lot of adherents in the research world, and there’s enough evidence to make a good case for it. It’s represented by the phrase ‘a calorie is a calorie’, i.e. all calories are equally fattening. #1 and #2 are both extreme positions, and as such they get a lot of attention. But the third group, although less vocal, may be closest to the truth.
Read more »
A Modest Proposal for Peer Review Research
With the advent of, and inexpensive nature of online sharing of information, I propose that all peer-review research should include (anonymous) raw data for each subject. At the very least, there should be scatter plots presented for the individual data points for the main outcomes.
I frequently teach statistics, and one of the first things we discuss in that class is sort of the "first purpose" of it all. Because before we can analyze data, first we must summarize and present the data in such a way that the "consumer" can readily glean information. In one classic stats text -- Triola -- this part is given the acronym CVDOT. C = Center, V = Variation, D = Distribution, O = Outliers and T = Time. So we go through the various ways we can convey the center of a data set, it's variability, distribution, etc. In most of the studies we discuss here, data is presented as a mean value +/- either the standard deviation or standard error (C +/- V in the acronym). And further statistical analysis compares these means between groups for statistically significant differences. If I have 20 subjects in a study, I can provide you with a table of all results sorted by subject number assigned randomly. This tells you very little. If all I do is sort the data ascending or descending, you can now readily pick out the range and "center" of the data. Perhaps if data is of a more rounded nature, you might be able to pick out the most frequent or common values. Outliers will jump off the page.
Read more »Health Care (Insurance) Reform Upheld, but Concentration and Abuse of Power Remain Largely Unaddressed
This may seem like sour grapes, but... Numerous media reports say that the US Supreme Court has upheld the massive US health care "reform" law (look here for Reuters coverage today, and here, for the Los Angeles Times, for example). In my humble opinion, the law will likely increase acess to commercial health care insurance, although will likely not reduce the expense of such insurance, or address the misbehavior of many large insurance companies (for example, see our series of posts on Aetna, UnitedHealth, WellPoint, and the insurance industry in general, etc, etc).
The law, as we summarized here, does contain a few provisions relevant to the concerns we raise on Health Care Renewal. These include measures to improve disclosure of certain kinds of conflicts of interest affecting individual physicians and health care academics, and improved funding for comparative effectiveness research. We hoped that the law would lead to a more rational way to fix payments to physicians that might supplant the secretive, procedure-happy RUC, but so far that hope remains unfulfilled.
However, as we wrote in 2010, the legislation will leave most of the other problems we discuss on Health Care Renewal untouched. We thus have one or two small steps for mankind in the US, but no reason for complacency.
The news is not bad. We are probably on balance somewhat better off with some health care insurance reform than none. However, we are still a long way from meaningfully addressing concentration and abuse of power in health care. There will be no rest for the weary bloggers of Health Care Renewal.
The law, as we summarized here, does contain a few provisions relevant to the concerns we raise on Health Care Renewal. These include measures to improve disclosure of certain kinds of conflicts of interest affecting individual physicians and health care academics, and improved funding for comparative effectiveness research. We hoped that the law would lead to a more rational way to fix payments to physicians that might supplant the secretive, procedure-happy RUC, but so far that hope remains unfulfilled.
However, as we wrote in 2010, the legislation will leave most of the other problems we discuss on Health Care Renewal untouched. We thus have one or two small steps for mankind in the US, but no reason for complacency.
The news is not bad. We are probably on balance somewhat better off with some health care insurance reform than none. However, we are still a long way from meaningfully addressing concentration and abuse of power in health care. There will be no rest for the weary bloggers of Health Care Renewal.
mesut ozil walpaper
 |
| mesut ozil walpaper |
 |
| mesut ozil walpaper |
 |
| mesut ozil walpaper |
 |
| mesut ozil walpaper |
 |
| mesut ozil walpaper |
 |
| mesut ozil walpaper |
Langganan:
Postingan (Atom)
