Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Thornir Alekeg" data-source="post: 3673619" data-attributes="member: 15651">Context and interpretation are so important, something the news likes to ignore when reporting things like new medical findings.  When something doubles your risk for some condition, it really doesn't mean very much until you know what the actual risk is first.  If the chance of developing that condition is 1 in 10, doubling it to 1 in 5 is a lot, but if the chance is 1 in 100,000, doubling it to 1 in 50,000 still means it is very unlikely that you will develop the condition.My favorite fun with statistics is when someone says to me something like "one-third of all marriages end in divorce."  I like to counter with, "but even worse is that two-thirds of all marriages end with the death of a spouse.  We need to get rid of marriage so spouses stop dying."</blockquote>