Open AccessWhat Are the Implications of Alternative Alpha Thresholds for Hypothesis Testing in Orthopaedics?
Author(s) -
David C. Landy,
Thomas J Utset-Ward,
Michael J. Lee
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
clinical orthopaedics and related research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.178
H-Index - 204
eISSN - 1528-1132
pISSN - 0009-921X
DOI - 10.1097/corr.0000000000000843
Subject(s) - medicine , null hypothesis , orthopedic surgery , p value , value (mathematics) , statistical hypothesis testing , alpha (finance) , statistics , surgery , mathematics , construct validity , patient satisfaction
Clinical research in orthopaedics typically reports the presence of an association after rejecting a null hypothesis of no association using an alpha threshold of 0.05 at which to evaluate a calculated p value. This arbitrary value is a factor that results in the current difficulties reproducing research findings. A proposal is gaining attention to lower the alpha threshold to 0.005. However, it is currently unknown how alpha thresholds are used in orthopaedics and the distribution of p values reported.