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Monday, March 17th, 2014

CORRECTION: Obesity Rates of Preschoolers Study May Be False

Author:     ASHLEY CAMPBELL
Source:     The Guardian (U.K.)
Publication Date:     16-Mar-14
 Link: CORRECTION: Obesity Rates of Preschoolers Study May Be False
Stephan:   Science is rarely absolute; good science is always committed to correcting earlier findings with new and better data. The story I ran recently about the drop in youth obesity, although peer-reviewed and from a significant research institute appears to have been flawed. As part of SR's policy to pursue accuracy with no consideration for politics and polemics, here is the correction. A search of Google News revealed not a single major American media outlet was featuring this correction.

A study published late February in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that obesity rates in U.S preschoolers had dropped an astonishing 43 percent in 10 years. It now appears that the results of the study on obesity rates of preschoolers may be false. Public health advocates had used this study as proof of success.

The results of the study by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were a shock. Experts did not have an answer as to why the obesity rate had dropped so significantly for this age group.

It turns out that the group of preschoolers, children ages two to five, included in the study were not a large enough group. In order for these results to be considered accurate, the study should have used a larger sample size. The study included 871 children, ages two to five, in its sample group. Because the obesity rate for this age group is fairly low, using low numbers makes the likelihood of errors from random chance higher. The CDC knew that their sample size was limited, and included that information with their study.

The 43 percent that the CDC claimed was determined by rounding up the 5.5 points […]

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