Excellent article. As a layperson not well-versed in statistics, what stands out most to me is not even the difference in attrition rates between the two groups (which is a serious issue), but rather that they could have *6 people* left in one group at the end and still consider the study important. If you began with 6 people in the cont…
Excellent article. As a layperson not well-versed in statistics, what stands out most to me is not even the difference in attrition rates between the two groups (which is a serious issue), but rather that they could have *6 people* left in one group at the end and still consider the study important. If you began with 6 people in the control group and had no dropouts, the study would be so small as to be practically useless. The fact that you began with 35 and ended with 6 makes it *worse* than useless, because of course the reasons for dropping out could be directly relevant to the question being investigated. Am I wrong?
Not wrong, on the nose correct. This is a very important aspect of probing the limitations of one's study. The level to which the population dwindled probably tells us something important about who left and who remained, something that's apparently not considered by the researchers.
Excellent article. As a layperson not well-versed in statistics, what stands out most to me is not even the difference in attrition rates between the two groups (which is a serious issue), but rather that they could have *6 people* left in one group at the end and still consider the study important. If you began with 6 people in the control group and had no dropouts, the study would be so small as to be practically useless. The fact that you began with 35 and ended with 6 makes it *worse* than useless, because of course the reasons for dropping out could be directly relevant to the question being investigated. Am I wrong?
Not wrong, on the nose correct. This is a very important aspect of probing the limitations of one's study. The level to which the population dwindled probably tells us something important about who left and who remained, something that's apparently not considered by the researchers.