http://tippingthescalestohealth.com/archives/76 Mon, 14 Sep 2009 03:09:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 http://tippingthescalestohealth.com/archives/76/comment-page-1#comment-1221 H. Gersh Mon, 06 Jul 2009 09:44:50 +0000 http://tippingthescalestohealth.com/?p=76#comment-1221 Nice sleuthing and explanation. A major limitation is the use of completers only for this analysis. This Completers only approach would be OK if the dropouts (41%) was truly random. However, one should be skeptical of these claims and usually these studies use something called Last Observation Carried Forward, reflecting that dropouts last weight at dropout carried forward. This strategy reflects the reality that most dropouts didn't get any benefit and presents more conservative claims. Nonetheless, for most diet products (even placebos), there's enough reality to go around that some people benefit. Nice sleuthing and explanation. A major limitation is the use of completers only for this analysis. This Completers only approach would be OK if the dropouts (41%) was truly random. However, one should be skeptical of these claims and usually these studies use something called Last Observation Carried Forward, reflecting that dropouts last weight at dropout carried forward. This strategy reflects the reality that most dropouts didn’t get any benefit and presents more conservative claims. Nonetheless, for most diet products (even placebos), there’s enough reality to go around that some people benefit.

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