Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Editorial
. 2022 Dec;30(12):3924-3928.
doi: 10.1007/s00167-022-07188-9. Epub 2022 Oct 7.

Fragility Part I: a guide to understanding statistical power

Sophia J Madjarova  1 , Ayoosh Pareek  2 , Christina M Eckhardt  3 , Arjun Khorana  1 , Kyle N Kunze  1 , Mattheu Ollivier  4 , Jón Karlsson  5 , Riley J Williams 3rd  1 , Benedict U Nwachukwu  1
Affiliations
Editorial

Fragility Part I: a guide to understanding statistical power

Sophia J Madjarova et al. Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc. 2022 Dec.

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to close the knowledge-to-practice gap around statistical power. We demonstrate how four factors affect power: p value, effect size, sample size, and variance. This article further delves into the advantages and disadvantages of a priori versus post hoc power analyses, though we believe only understanding of the former is essential to addressing the present-day issue of reproducibility in research. Upon reading this paper, physician-scientists should have expanded their arsenal of statistical tools and have the necessary context to understand statistical fragility.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Allen MM, Pareek A, Krych AJ, Hewett TE, Levy BA, Stuart MJ, Dahm DL (2016) Are female soccer players at an increased risk of second anterior cruciate ligament injury compared with their athletic peers? Am J Sports Med 44:2492–2498 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Anderson BL, Williams S, Schulkin J (2013) Statistical literacy of obstetrics-gynecology residents. J Grad Med Educ 5:272–275 - DOI - PubMed - PMC
    1. Bababekov YJ, Chang DC (2019) Post hoc power: a surgeon’s first assistant in interpreting “negative” studies. Ann Surg 269:e11–e12 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bababekov YJ, Hung Y-C, Hsu Y-T, Udelsman BV, Mueller JL, Lin H-Y, Stapleton SM, Chang DC (2019) Is the power threshold of 0.8 applicable to surgical science?—empowering the underpowered study. J Surg Res 241:235–239 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Dziak JJ, Dierker LC, Abar B (2020) The interpretation of statistical power after the data have been gathered. Curr Psychol 39:870–877 - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources