Statistical power in medical research. What stance should be taken when the research results are significant?
*Correspondencia: Dra. Carmen Carazo-Díaz. Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia. Avenida de los Jerónimos, 135. E-30107 Guadalupe de Maciascoque, Murcia.
E-mail: ccarazo@ucam.edu
When researchers request funding and authorisation from financial institutions to carry out their project, one of the first questions they are asked is: what is the statistical power of the study you are proposing? If the researcher answers, for example, 90%, and the evaluator is satisfied, it is certain that he/she is not really familiar with the subject. The power of a study is not unique. It depends on certain parameters and what happens is that, in most cases, by introducing a slight variation in the values of these parameters, the power takes on an acceptable value. If this is not the case and the study is carried out anyway, and its results are very significant, there is no room to question its success by arguing that the power of the study was very low. It is just the time to celebrate.