JAT Chat | When Statistical Tests Compound in Sports Medicine Research

Welcome to JAT Chat, presented by the Journal of Athletic Training, the official journal of the National Athletic Trainers' Association. In this episode, co-host Dr. Kara Radzak speaks with Dr. Travis Anderson and Dr. Eric Post about their recently published article, "Multiplying Alpha: When Statistical Tests Compound in Sports Medicine Research".

Drs. Anderson and Post discuss how multiple statistical tests can inflate false-positive rates in sports medicine research, explain family-wise and experiment-wise error, and illustrate risks with a large-scale Paris Olympic Games analysis. They recommend transparency, pre-registration, correction for multiplicity, and consider Bayesian approaches to improve rigor and clinical decision-making.

 

Article: https://doi.org/10.4085/1062-6050-0700.24

 

Guest Bios:

Travis Anderson, PhD: Travis recently joined US Soccer as the Manager of Research and Innovation, following his work as a Research Scientist at the USOPC where he worked closely with Eric. His academic background is in exercise physiology, although he dabbled in statistics throughout graduate school and enjoys continuing his education in applied statistics in sports medicine and exercise science.

Eric Post, PhD, ATC: Eric is the Manager of the Sports Medicine Research Laboratory for the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee. Eric previously served as Program Director for the Master's in Athletic Training Program at Indiana State University and as a faculty member at San Diego State University.