Posts filed under Stat of the Week (619)

Thank you for the fantastic nominations in last week’s competition.

We’re awarding the prize to Lindsay Mitchell, for her nomination of Stuff’s mixup in the reporting of a statistic:

25 in every 1000 ex-nuptial births occur to women aged between 15 and 19.

Because it is untrue. The claim is a misrepresentation of the following statistic:

25 in 1000 unmarried females aged 15-19 have an ex-nuptial birth (2011)

Sometimes rewording a statistic ends up with a totally different statistic. For example, the proportion of men who are left handed is not the same as the proportion of left handers who are men.

Each week, we would like to invite readers of Stats Chat to submit nominations for our Stat of the Week competition and be in with the chance to win an iTunes voucher.

Here’s how it works:

• Anyone may add a comment on this post to nominate their Stat of the Week candidate before midday Friday July 26 2013.
• Statistics can be bad, exemplary or fascinating.
• The statistic must be in the NZ media during the period of July 20 – 26 2013 inclusive.
• Quote the statistic, when and where it was published and tell us why it should be our Stat of the Week.

Next Monday at midday we’ll announce the winner of this week’s Stat of the Week competition, and start a new one.

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If you’d like to comment on or debate any of this week’s Stat of the Week nominations, please do so below!

Each week, we would like to invite readers of Stats Chat to submit nominations for our Stat of the Week competition and be in with the chance to win an iTunes voucher.

Here’s how it works:

• Anyone may add a comment on this post to nominate their Stat of the Week candidate before midday Friday July 19 2013.
• Statistics can be bad, exemplary or fascinating.
• The statistic must be in the NZ media during the period of July 13 – 19 2013 inclusive.
• Quote the statistic, when and where it was published and tell us why it should be our Stat of the Week.

Next Monday at midday we’ll announce the winner of this week’s Stat of the Week competition, and start a new one.

(more…)

If you’d like to comment on or debate any of this week’s Stat of the Week nominations, please do so below!

Congratulations again to Nick Iverson for his nomination on newspaper headlines about cancer, which is worth a post all by itself. It’s no wonder people are feeling confused about medical advice when most days there’s new headlines with isolated findings:

“Oily fish twice a week is best breast cancer defence.”

Someone should have told Angela Jolie. She thought the best defence was total removal.

Anyway, the Herald previously told us “Biggest breast cancer risks – obesity, alcohol and lack of exercise.”

So make up your mind, Herald, is the biggest risk lack of fish or obesity, alcohol and lack of exercise?

By the way, salted fish is another Group 1 carcinogen. So presumably your oily fish mustn’t be salted. And it must be oily not fatty because “Fatty food linked to breast cancer”.

Other big breast cancer risks: “HRT doubles danger of breast cancer” and your risk is also doubled by NOT having a teen pregnancy.

Also being a professional almost doubles your risk “Professional women more susceptible to breast cancer”, and living in NZ doubles your risk “Breast cancer: Geographic links analysed”.

Not finished yet.

Air fresheners double your risk “Breast cancer link to air fresheners”; being left handed doubles your risk “Left-handed women’s risk of breast cancer higher”.

Taking vitamin pills adds 20% to your risk “Major research finds link between multi-vitamin pills and breast cancer”. Whew! That’s a relief. For a minute there I thought it was going to double my risk.

Each week, we would like to invite readers of Stats Chat to submit nominations for our Stat of the Week competition and be in with the chance to win an iTunes voucher.

Here’s how it works:

• Anyone may add a comment on this post to nominate their Stat of the Week candidate before midday Friday July 12 2013.
• Statistics can be bad, exemplary or fascinating.
• The statistic must be in the NZ media during the period of July 6 – 12 2013 inclusive.
• Quote the statistic, when and where it was published and tell us why it should be our Stat of the Week.

Next Monday at midday we’ll announce the winner of this week’s Stat of the Week competition, and start a new one.

(more…)

If you’d like to comment on or debate any of this week’s Stat of the Week nominations, please do so below!

Congratulations to Nick Iversen for his nomination of this stat of the week from the NZ Herald:

This story states that “Public opinion has turned …” To justify this they quote statistics from surveys done in 1012 and 2103.

But the surveys are not comparable. They asked different questions.

The 2012 survey questions and results:

I disapprove 40.3%
I approve 19.6%
I conditionally approve 37.7%

The 2013 survey questions and results:

I disapprove 61.5%
I approve 33.8%

When the condition (that the number of pokie machines drops across the city) was removed from the 2013 survey those respondents had to switch to a new answer.

My guess is that most would have switched to “I disapprove” because their approval was conditional and the condition has now been removed. If so then the 2012 survey would have had results:

I disapprove 78.0%
I approve 19.6%

In that case public opinion has moved in the opposite direction to that in the headline.

Even if only half would have switched the figures would have been

I disapprove 59.2%
I approve 38.5%

and it still looks like the opposite to the headline.

The headline is pure fiction. The numbers don’t support it. The two surveys can’t be compared.

For more, see Thomas’ post on this.

Each week, we would like to invite readers of Stats Chat to submit nominations for our Stat of the Week competition and be in with the chance to win an iTunes voucher.

Here’s how it works:

• Anyone may add a comment on this post to nominate their Stat of the Week candidate before midday Friday July 5 2013.
• Statistics can be bad, exemplary or fascinating.
• The statistic must be in the NZ media during the period of June 29 – July 5 2013 inclusive.
• Quote the statistic, when and where it was published and tell us why it should be our Stat of the Week.

Next Monday at midday we’ll announce the winner of this week’s Stat of the Week competition, and start a new one.

(more…)