Great NYTimes Article on Research Difficulties

In yesterday's NYTimes Magazine there's a great article by Gary Taubes on the difficulties of doing epidemiology and medical research that will interest anyone doing public relations measurement or empirical research in general. Although we in public relations research don't have to wrestle with healthy-user bias or placebo effects, there is plenty here on causation vs. correlation and other problems familar to our field. We certainly can empathize with this quote from Jerry Avorn: “The wonder and horror of epidemiology... is that it’s not enough to just measure one thing very accurately. To get the right answer, you may have to measure a great many things very accurately.” --Bill Paarlberg

Comments

[Steven Maimes]

I agree, the article you refer to "Do We Really Know What Makes Us Healthy?" is a must read for anyone interested in epidemiology.