How to Interpret (Frequentist) Statistical Estimates in Medical Research
[This is the English translation of an article originally published on SIAF Community, the Italian scientific platform for forensic and insurance medicine] Statistical methods are used in medical research to estimate the effects of treatments or health conditions in populations. For example, when testing the effectiveness of a new treatment that has shown very positive results in preclinical animal studies, researchers draw from the target clinical population a small group of patients - called a statistical sample . The ideal goal is to administer the treatment to the patients in the sample to estimate its effectiveness in the entire population. The process by which the effect observed in the sample is “transported” to the wider population is called inference . However, even when the best inferential methods available are used, a perfect transport is factually impossible . The reasons range from the many uncertainties involved in conducting a clinical study to the variability of cond...