Median Watch

Eyes on statistics

Dear p-values, it's not me, it's not you, it's everyone else

Yet another p-value run-in. For a recent observational study I tried to limit the use of p-values in the paper. My colleagues wanted more p-values and I had to politely push back. During one team meeting I even offered to put the p-values in if someone could accurately tell me what they meant … silence. Predicting that the reviewers would also want to see more p-values, I added this sentence to the paper’s methods: “We have tried to limit the use of p-values, as they are often misunderstood or misinterpreted, and elected to discuss clinically meaningful differences.