Re:We need more goat sacrifices
by stephenbez on Wednesday November 11, 2026 @12:49PM
(#50456234)
> which is exactly the kind of meaningless result you'd expect from doing ~20 statistical tests over random numbers. (The paper lists hundreds of p-values.)
On page 20 they describe using the Westfall and Young method to adjust for multiple hypothesis testing and report adjusted and unadjusted p-values.
They also pre registered their analysis with depression as a primary outcome and breaking down by medical debt quartile as pre registered subgroup analysis.
In the highest quartile of medical debt group, 45.9% percent in the no debt forgiveness group had at least moderate depression vs 58.3% in the debt forgiveness group, p=0.002
Dismissing this as a meaningless result seems unfair given that they preregistered their analysis and adjusted for multiple comparisons.
I’m not a stats expert and haven’t spent much time with the paper, but I’d suggest checking the methods section before making claims.
On page 20 they describe using the Westfall and Young method to adjust for multiple hypothesis testing and report adjusted and unadjusted p-values.
They also pre registered their analysis with depression as a primary outcome and breaking down by medical debt quartile as pre registered subgroup analysis.
In the highest quartile of medical debt group, 45.9% percent in the no debt forgiveness group had at least moderate depression vs 58.3% in the debt forgiveness group, p=0.002
Dismissing this as a meaningless result seems unfair given that they preregistered their analysis and adjusted for multiple comparisons.
I’m not a stats expert and haven’t spent much time with the paper, but I’d suggest checking the methods section before making claims.