TY - JOUR
T1 - BIAS AGAINST THE NULL HYPOTHESIS
T2 - THE REPRODUCTIVE HAZARDS OF COCAINE
AU - Koren, Gideon
AU - Shear, Heather
AU - Graham, Karen
AU - Einarson, Tom
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported in part by a grant from Health and Welfare Canada. G. K. is a career scientist of Ontario Ministry of Health and K. G. receives an Ontario Graduate Studies award.
PY - 1989/12/16
Y1 - 1989/12/16
N2 - To examine whether studies showing no adverse effects of cocaine in pregnancy have a different likelihood of being accepted for presentation by a large scientific meeting, all abstracts submitted to the Society of Pediatric Research between 1980 and 1989 were analysed. There were 58 abstracts on fetal outcome after gestational exposure to cocaine. Of the 9 negative abstracts (showing no adverse effect) only 1 (11%) was accepted, whereas 28 of the 49 positive abstracts were accepted (57%). This difference was significant. Negative studies tended to verify cocaine use more often and to have more cocaine and control cases. Of the 8 rejected negative studies and the 21 rejected positive studies, significantly more negative studies verified cocaine use, and predominantly reported cocaine use rather than use of other drugs. This bias against the null hypothesis may lead to distorted estimation of the teratogenic risk of cocaine and thus cause women to terminate their pregnancy unjustifiably.
AB - To examine whether studies showing no adverse effects of cocaine in pregnancy have a different likelihood of being accepted for presentation by a large scientific meeting, all abstracts submitted to the Society of Pediatric Research between 1980 and 1989 were analysed. There were 58 abstracts on fetal outcome after gestational exposure to cocaine. Of the 9 negative abstracts (showing no adverse effect) only 1 (11%) was accepted, whereas 28 of the 49 positive abstracts were accepted (57%). This difference was significant. Negative studies tended to verify cocaine use more often and to have more cocaine and control cases. Of the 8 rejected negative studies and the 21 rejected positive studies, significantly more negative studies verified cocaine use, and predominantly reported cocaine use rather than use of other drugs. This bias against the null hypothesis may lead to distorted estimation of the teratogenic risk of cocaine and thus cause women to terminate their pregnancy unjustifiably.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0024788469&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/S0140-6736(89)92044-8
DO - 10.1016/S0140-6736(89)92044-8
M3 - ???researchoutput.researchoutputtypes.contributiontojournal.article???
C2 - 2574369
AN - SCOPUS:0024788469
SN - 0140-6736
VL - 334
SP - 1440
EP - 1442
JO - The Lancet
JF - The Lancet
IS - 8677
ER -