Siteadmin, Check users, nsTeam1RO, nsTeam1RW, nsTeam1_talkRO, nsTeam1_talkRW, oversight, Administrators
30,650
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Line 177:
Line 177: − − :::As one with multiple family members in the health and medicine field, who all know the term "spontaneous abortion" to mean miscarriage, despite not being in a ob-gyn specialty, I would be incredibly alarmed if that large of a percentage of nurses was not familiar with a standard medical term. In fact, I would safely say that one could conduct a poll at a local hospital and find that most, if not all, nurses know what "spontaneous abortion" means. <font color="FFD700">[[User:ColinR|ColinR]]</font><sup><font color="000000">[[User_talk:ColinR|talk]]</font></sup> 12:55, 2 May 2007 (EDT) + + + +
the wording of questions has a significant impact on surveys
:: The term "spontaneous abortion" is not recognized by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, and does not even appear in the definition for [http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/miscarriage miscarriage]. While I am open-minded about this, so far it appears to be an effort to confuse the important distinction between abortion and miscarriage, and thereby confuse the very different health effects. Apparently it did confuse 25% of the respondents to the questionnaire in this study.--[[User:Aschlafly|Aschlafly]] 12:28, 2 May 2007 (EDT)
:: The term "spontaneous abortion" is not recognized by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, and does not even appear in the definition for [http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/miscarriage miscarriage]. While I am open-minded about this, so far it appears to be an effort to confuse the important distinction between abortion and miscarriage, and thereby confuse the very different health effects. Apparently it did confuse 25% of the respondents to the questionnaire in this study.--[[User:Aschlafly|Aschlafly]] 12:28, 2 May 2007 (EDT)
If I may interject, the problem with studies like this is that they are used by partisans to justify their preconceived notions. It's like the ''New York Times'' claiming that women are more likely to be beaten by their husband than by anyone else; therefore, it's better for women to single than married. You have to dig into it to discover that they included the most violent category of live-in lover as a "husband" in the study, i.e., a man to whom the woman is not legally married (no marriage license).
If I may interject, the problem with studies like this is that they are used by partisans to justify their preconceived notions. It's like the ''New York Times'' claiming that women are more likely to be beaten by their husband than by anyone else; therefore, it's better for women to single than married. You have to dig into it to discover that they included the most violent category of live-in lover as a "husband" in the study, i.e., a man to whom the woman is not legally married (no marriage license).
So many other studies have similar problems. I first started learning about "statisticulation" like this by reading [[Darrell Huff]]'s classic on junk math: ''How to Lie With Statistics''. I got 760 on my math SAT, so I'm awfully hard to fool. --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] 12:35, 2 May 2007 (EDT)
So many other studies have similar problems. I first started learning about "statisticulation" like this by reading [[Darrell Huff]]'s classic on junk math: ''How to Lie With Statistics''. I got 760 on my math SAT, so I'm awfully hard to fool. --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] 12:35, 2 May 2007 (EDT)
:::As one with multiple family members in the health and medicine field, who all know the term "spontaneous abortion" to mean miscarriage, despite not being in a ob-gyn specialty, I would be incredibly alarmed if that large of a percentage of nurses was not familiar with a standard medical term. In fact, I would safely say that one could conduct a poll at a local hospital and find that most, if not all, nurses know what "spontaneous abortion" means. <font color="FFD700">[[User:ColinR|ColinR]]</font><sup><font color="000000">[[User_talk:ColinR|talk]]</font></sup> 12:55, 2 May 2007 (EDT)
::::It's a well-known fact that the wording of questions has a significant impact on surveys, often more than the typical 4% margin of error which comes from small sample size. --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] 13:05, 2 May 2007 (EDT)