Posted by Michael Wonder on 20 Jun 2023
Evidence of lack of treatment efficacy derived from statistically non-significant results of randomised clinical trials
20 June 2023 - Many randomised clinical trials yield statistically non-significant results. Such results are difficult to interpret within the dominant statistical framework.
Among 169 statistically non-significant primary outcome results of randomised trials published in 2021, the hypotheses of lack of effect (null hypothesis) and of clinically meaningful effectiveness (alternate hypothesis) were compared using a likelihood ratio to quantify the strength of support the observed trial findings provide for one hypothesis versus the other; about half (52.1%) yielded a likelihood ratio of more than 100 for the null hypothesis of lack of effect versus the alternate.
