The statistics that are designed to impress you

Why the numbers your doctor quotes may be telling you far less than you think and how to ask the questions that change everything.

This is the third in a series examining how modern medicine’s instinct to intervene can, in certain circumstances, work against the very people it intends to help.

The first piece looked at overdiagnosis - the transformation of normal human variation into pathology.

The second examined the financial relationships that shape clinical guidelines, and the iatrogenic harm that follows when those guidelines expand treatment into populations unlikely to benefit.

This piece looks at the statistical language used to present evidence. Language that is technically accurate, routinely misleading and almost never challenged in the consulting room.

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