Relevance of Null Hypothesis Significance Testing (NHST) in biomedical sciences: sociological approach.

Abstract

Significance tests play a very important role in the scientific community, and the biomedical research community is not an exception. This is due, on the one hand, to the widespread use of the test in scientific methodology and the corresponding frequency of its application in research, and, on the other hand, to the general misinterpretation of the results obtained using this method. Misunderstanding of significance testing in academia and erroneous conclusions in research, regardless of the scientific field, are at the root of the distrust of this statistical method. This article aims to give insight into the relevance of this kind of method in the biomedical field and find a theoretical explanation for this phenomenon, and subsequently regulate the correct interpretation of the null hypothesis significance test (NHST), as well as consider alternative statistical methods. In addition, some relevant empirical studies from a geographical and multidisciplinary perspective will be presented to determine the real extent of misspecification at the academic level. In this way, both practical and theoretical arguments will be applied to address the problem of NHST at multiple levels.