A new study published in the CABI journal Human-Animal Interactions suggests that companion animals—including dogs, cats, fish and birds—do not significantly benefit the emotional health of owners with severe mental illness.
170 is a fairly substantial sample size, but it does pose challenges with data interpretation when there’s no intervention and the expected effect size is small.
Life sciences often uses much smaller sample sizes, but with intervention.
At the absolute minimum, the headline here should be “found no evidence of” rather than “do not”. The good old absence of evidence vs. evidence of absence thing.
170 is a fairly substantial sample size, but it does pose challenges with data interpretation when there’s no intervention and the expected effect size is small.
Life sciences often uses much smaller sample sizes, but with intervention.
At the absolute minimum, the headline here should be “found no evidence of” rather than “do not”. The good old absence of evidence vs. evidence of absence thing.