Study: half of the studies you read about in the news are wrong
▻http://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/3/3/14792174/half-scientific-studies-news-are-wrong
The authors of the PLOS One paper assembled a huge database of studies in biomedical #science, follow-ups to those studies, and meta-studies on those follow-ups. And then they searched the Dow Jones Factiva newspaper database to see how often each type of study was covered.
They found that initial studies were around five times more likely to be reported on than follow-up studies. And meta-reviews were barely covered at all.
[...] Here’s why this is a problem. The PLOS One analysis paper found that only 48.7 percent of 156 studies reported by newspapers were confirmed by a subsequent meta-review. The percentage dropped to 34 when the researchers focused on initial studies only.