“Cake causes herpes?” - promiscuous dichotomisation induces false positives
It is likely that manipulating cut-off points in measured variables represents a significant source of data manipulation in published science, and the ease of access of larger health databases means this is an issue that is likely to grow in severity. We discuss implications of this, and means of identifying potential promiscuous dichotomisation.
Authors
- David Robert Grimes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3140-3278)
- James A. J. Heathers (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0936-026X)
Institutions
- Trinity College Dublin (IE)
- Linnaeus University (SE)
- World Water Watch (US)
- Integrity Systems (United States) (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- BMC Medical Research Methodology
- Published
- 2025-11-13
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-025-02712-0
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Data-Driven Disease Surveillance
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.71