Abstract

SILVA-AYCAGUER, Luis C.. Tests of statistical significance: six decades of fireworks. Rev. Fac. Nac. Salud Pública [online]. 2016, vol.34, n.3, pp.372-379. ISSN 0120-386X.  https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.rfnsp.v34n3a11.

After decades of criticism against inferential techniques based on statistical significance tests, which mainly reject the so-called "null hypothesis", and in spite of the remarkable consensus among professional statisticians, this resource remains prevalent in both biomedical publications (including public health journals) and introductory statistics courses. Among the many problems identified by the most prominent specialists, three of them are the most obvious and easy to understand: that these tests do not contribute to the actual enterprise of science, that the answers to the questions that are addressed are known in advance and that their results depend critically on an element that is external to the domain that is being studied: sample size. This paper discusses in detail these limitations, illustrates their pernicious presence in current research and evaluates the reasons for the survival of the senselessness in this matter.

Keywords : statistical inference; significant statistical tests; confidence intervals; sampling size; p-values..

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