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Greg Atkinson @gregatki.bsky.social · 1d

Is it true that for RCT & the very common continuous-level measurements, mean (CI) treatment effect estimation is exactly the same whether one uses change scores or follow-up measurements as the outcome - as long as ANCOVA with baseline covariate is used?

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Reposted by Greg Atkinson

James O’Brien @mrjamesob.bsky.social · 15d

Happiness, humour, truth and, most crucially, courage are the qualities needed to repel the racist tide.
Because its architects offer whining, victimhood, lies and, most crucially, cowardice.

Liam Thorp @liamthorp.bsky.social · 15d

Very good stuff from Sadiq Khan at the Labour Irish society event. He said there are two reasons he loves coming to Labour Conference.

“One is the reception at the Labour Party Irish Society reception.

“The second is to get away from all the Sharia Law in London”

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Reposted by Greg Atkinson

James Steele @jamessteeleii.bsky.social · 16d

#SportScience, especially in elite sports, has an issue that can make effects seem more impressive than they really are... selection bias on the sample (explanation🧵 and a simulation pictured to illustrate below).

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Histogram figure illustrating selection bias in estimating intervention effects. The central blue histogram shows the full population distribution of pre-scores (mean = 100, SD = 10). A green histogram (top left) shows a random sample of 1000 participants with similar mean (≈100) and SD (≈10), producing a raw intervention effect of ~8.7 and standardised mean difference (SMD) of ~0.86. A red histogram (top right) shows a conditionally sampled group (n = 1000, pre-score ≥ 110), with higher mean (≈115) and smaller SD (≈4.4). This sample yields a similar raw effect (~9) but an inflated SMD (~2.0) compared to the population. A corrected SMD brings it back closer to the true effect (~0.9). The figure illustrates how restricting samples to higher-performing individuals (e.g., “elite” athletes) compresses variance and artificially inflates standardised effect sizes, despite unbiased raw effects.

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Reposted by Greg Atkinson

Our World in Data @ourworldindata.org · 20d

Read more about RCTs and why they’re so important: ourworldindata.org/randomized-c...

Why randomized controlled trials matter and the procedures that strengthen them

Randomized controlled trials are a key tool to study cause and effect. Why do they matter and how do they work?

ourworldindata.org

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Reposted by Greg Atkinson

WHO @who.int · 21d

WHO statement on autism-related issues

The World Health Organization (WHO) emphasizes that there is currently no conclusive scientific evidence confirming a possible link between #autism and use of acetaminophen (also known as paracetamol) during pregnancy

Full statement bit.ly/47YsgwI

WHO statement on autism-related issues

Follow @WHO for the latest updates

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Greg Atkinson @gregatki.bsky.social · 21d

Good luck media fact checkers. You have my sympathy.

Reposted by Greg Atkinson

International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism @hk-ijsnem.bsky.social · 22d

Find the full paper here 🔗 doi.org/10.1123/ijsn...

doi.org

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Reposted by Greg Atkinson

International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism @hk-ijsnem.bsky.social · 22d

🚨LEAD FEATURE ARTICLE🚨 November 2025✨

We are very excited to announce our lead feature article for the November 2025 by Lolli et al titled ‘Understanding Treatment Response Heterogeneity Using Crossover Randomized Controlled Trials: A Primer for Exercise and Nutrition Scientists’.

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Reposted by Greg Atkinson

Darren Dahly @statsepi.bsky.social · Dec 20

Restating a prediction I made on twitter that university rankings will be a thing of the past 10 years from now, and we'll look back on the university heads that first led us away from them with a great respect and appreciation....1/

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Reposted by Greg Atkinson

Stephen Frost @sfrost.bsky.social · 28d

Almost 900 fewer people have been injured on Welsh roads since the default speed limit was lowered from 30 to 20mph two years ago

Casualties on 20 to 30mph roads between July and September 2024 were the lowest for the three month-period since records began in 1979

👏 Evidence-led policy

Nearly 900 fewer people injured since 20mph introduction in Wales

Figures show a 25% reduction in the number of injuries on Wales' roads in the past 18 months.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Reposted by Greg Atkinson

Lucy Merrell @lucymerrell.bsky.social · Sep 12

So happy to see this one out! Thank you so much for your help @gregatki.bsky.social, your insight and analysis of the data were invaluable (as always!). Look forward to working with you again.

Greg Atkinson @gregatki.bsky.social · Sep 12

Congrats to @lucymerrell.bsky.social on her new paper, "Basal Metabolic Requirements, Biomarkers of Cardiometabolic Health, & Anthropometric Measures of Obesity in Women & Men With Restricted Growth Conditions". It was a pleasure to work on this project. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Basal Metabolic Requirements, Biomarkers of Cardiometabolic Health, and Anthropometric Measures of Obesity in Women and Men With Restricted Growth Conditions

Population-specific thresholds have not been defined for the levels of adiposity and systemic biomarkers that predict chronic health risks in people with restricted growth conditions. Here, anthropom....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Greg Atkinson @gregatki.bsky.social · Sep 12

Congrats to @lucymerrell.bsky.social on her new paper, "Basal Metabolic Requirements, Biomarkers of Cardiometabolic Health, & Anthropometric Measures of Obesity in Women & Men With Restricted Growth Conditions". It was a pleasure to work on this project. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Basal Metabolic Requirements, Biomarkers of Cardiometabolic Health, and Anthropometric Measures of Obesity in Women and Men With Restricted Growth Conditions

Population-specific thresholds have not been defined for the levels of adiposity and systemic biomarkers that predict chronic health risks in people with restricted growth conditions. Here, anthropom....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Reposted by Greg Atkinson

Andrew Vickers @vickersbiostats.bsky.social · Sep 5

This is big! Worked with great statisticians on guidelines for meta-analysis & systematic review. We discuss rationales for systematic review, evaluation & interpretation of heterogeneity, & common errors in network meta-analysis, funnel plots etc. www.europeanurology.com/article/S030...

Guidelines for Meta-analyses and Systematic Reviews in Urology

Our guideline comprises points addressing the conduct and interpretation of systematic reviews and meta-analyses in urology. Application of the guideline would lead to a more considered interpretation...

www.europeanurology.com

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Reposted by Greg Atkinson

Marion Campbell @marionkcampbell.bsky.social · Sep 8

It is first important to stress that pilot and feasibility studies are *not* about detecting intervention effects. They are about exploring key uncertainties ahead of the main trial 2/6

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Reposted by Greg Atkinson

Marion Campbell @marionkcampbell.bsky.social · Sep 8

I seem to have been discussing pilot and feasibility studies a lot this week. One question often asked is how big should my pilot/feasibility study be? 1/6
#MethodologyMonday #124

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Reposted by Greg Atkinson

International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism @hk-ijsnem.bsky.social · Sep 6

✨ NOVEMBER 2025 ISSUE LINE-UP✨

How are we already on the last issue of 2025?! This year has flown by but lucky for you, the IJSNEM content keeps on delivering. Stay tuned for papers to feature 🔔

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Reposted by Greg Atkinson

Prof Jeffrey S Morris @jsm2334.bsky.social · Sep 5

Deborah Fuller, a microbiologist from UWash, wrote this article pointing out many of the false statements made by RFK in his senate hearing yesterday and explaining why they were false.

How RFK Jr.’s misguided science on mRNA vaccines is shaping policy − a vaccine expert examines the false claims

Chaos at the CDC and the sharp move away from mRNA vaccines has public health experts alarmed.

theconversation.com

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Reposted by Greg Atkinson

Jack Wilkinson @jdwilko.bsky.social · Sep 5

www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

INSPECT-SR: A tool for assessing trustworthiness of randomised controlled trials.

INSPECT-SR: a tool for assessing trustworthiness of randomised controlled trials

The integrity of evidence synthesis is threatened by problematic randomised controlled trials (RCTs). These are RCTs where there are serious concerns about the trustworthiness of the data or findings....

www.medrxiv.org

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Reposted by Greg Atkinson

Darren Dahly @statsepi.bsky.social · Sep 5

One of the most common misunderstandings about the use and value of placebos in clinical RCTs, often made by both methodological experts and experienced trialists:

(from @stephensenn.bsky.social in academic.oup.com/jrsssa/advan...)

A further problem is illustrated by the authors equating no treatment with placebo. For example, describing their second assumption, they state, ‘Implicit in this notation is that there is a single version of ‘no treatment’ that is consistently defined across all subjects in the RCT and external controls’ (p4). However, most clinical trials are add-on trials (Senn, 2002), even if not specifically identified as such. In placebo-controlled trials, one starts with standard of care and then subjects are either allocated to receive in addition the active treatment or a placebo to it. The statistical analysis plan for SUNFISH (F Hoffman-La-Roche Ltd, 2020) has a protocol summary as Appendix 1, which has this to say, ‘In addition to the study drug treatment, patients may continue to receive concomitant drug medication…’ (p186). This is very standard for clinical trials. It highlights that a key assumption in borrowing control data in this way is that there has been no evolution in the standard of care in the period since the trial.

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Greg Atkinson @gregatki.bsky.social · Sep 1

I view detection of HTE as informing future moderation studies for the identification of baseline predictors/subgroups of response for eventual clinical utility. The info in sect 6 of physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1113/... may apply to your Q, but sect 7 highlights need for clear purposes.

Issues in the determination of ‘responders’ and ‘non‐responders’ in physiological research

New Findings What is the topic for this review? We discuss the dichotomization of continuous-level physiological measurements into ‘responders’ and ‘non-responders’ when interventions/treatments ar...

physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · Aug 27

I wrote about gene-gene interactions (epistasis) and the implications for heritability, trait definitions, natural selection, and therapeutic interventions. Biology is clearly full of causal interactions, so why don't we see them in the data? A 🧵:

Beneath the surface of the sum

When genetic interactions matter and when they don't

open.substack.com

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Greg Atkinson @gregatki.bsky.social · Aug 31

Thanks for taking time to read the paper. We've been very worried about its length!
1) yes - general agreement although no formal comparison of underlying maths.
2) Our main aim was to cover more robust ways of detecting HTE than typically used. Shrinkage is prob. most useful for clinical relevance.

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Greg Atkinson @gregatki.bsky.social · Aug 28

It was a rewarding labour of love to work on this paper with a fantastic team of authors, “Understanding Treatment Response Heterogeneity Using Crossover Randomized Controlled Trials: A Primer for Exercise and Nutrition Scientists”. @hk-ijsnem.bsky.social journals.humankinetics.com/view/journal...

journals.humankinetics.com

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Greg Atkinson @gregatki.bsky.social · Aug 26

Another nail in the coffin for ratios - this one in the context of running economy, "Quantifying Running Economy in Amateur Runners: Evaluating VO2 and Energy Cost with Model-based Normalization", www.jssm.org/jssm-24-684....

Quantifying Running Economy in Amateur Runners: Evaluating VO<sub>2</sub> and Energy Cost with Model-based Normalization #sportsscience #sportsmedicine #exercisescience

Quantifying Running Economy in Amateur Runners: Evaluating VO<sub>2</sub> and Energy Cost with Model-based Normalization

www.jssm.org

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Greg Atkinson @gregatki.bsky.social · Aug 22

6. Consideration 1 renders multiplicity likely. Consideration 2 renders it unlikely. IMHO, it’s good to explore the presence of additive/multiplicative effects rather than blanket assumption of the latter & use of %. Figure 2 and related text here is of interest: www-users.york.ac.uk/~mb55/msc/tr...

Cross-over trials

www-users.york.ac.uk

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