The more abortions a woman’s had, the greater the risk that she’ll get breast cancer. The risk increases as a woman ages: While having “just” one abortion doesn’t significantly increase a woman’s chances to get breast cancer when she’s young, it catches up with her when she reaches her post-menopausal years.
Having had at least one child has a protective effect on a woman’s health. These test findings have been confirmed again and again.
There have been studies done in the West on a positive correlation between abortion and breast cancer. Now, a new Chinese study is confirming the abortion-breast cancer link.
First, a crash course on statistics and scientific studies!
The word “correlation” means association — that two variables are associated together. While a correlation is not causation, a constantly recurrent association is strongly suggestive of a cause-effect relationship.
The word “positive” refers to the relationship between two variables: they both increase or both decrease in intensity. A “negative” correlation means the two variables travel in opposite direction, that is, as one increases, the other decreases. In this case, a positive correlation means that as the number of abortions a woman has had increases, the likelihood of getting breast cancer also increases.
Additionally, when scientists find a correlation, the results typically are tested for their “statistical significance“ or “level of significance — which is an effort to determine if the results could have happened by pure chance alone. Popular levels of significance are 10% (0.1), 5% (0.05), 1% (0.01), 0.5% (0.005), and 0.1% (0.001). Choosing level of significance is a somewhat arbitrary task, but for many applications, a level of 5% is chosen. The most demanding standard of statistical significance is the 0.01 interval. This means that the probability for the test result happening by pure chance is only 1 out of 1,000. That, in turn, confers “significance” or credibility on the test result.
Lastly, an important principle in science is verifiability or replicability. A test should be repeated by other scientists who can confirm the alleged results. The more the test is replicated and the same results are obtained, the more confident we have that an alleged relationship indeed is true.
Having had at least one child has a protective effect on a woman’s health. These test findings have been confirmed again and again.
There have been studies done in the West on a positive correlation between abortion and breast cancer. Now, a new Chinese study is confirming the abortion-breast cancer link.
First, a crash course on statistics and scientific studies!
The word “correlation” means association — that two variables are associated together. While a correlation is not causation, a constantly recurrent association is strongly suggestive of a cause-effect relationship.
The word “positive” refers to the relationship between two variables: they both increase or both decrease in intensity. A “negative” correlation means the two variables travel in opposite direction, that is, as one increases, the other decreases. In this case, a positive correlation means that as the number of abortions a woman has had increases, the likelihood of getting breast cancer also increases.
Additionally, when scientists find a correlation, the results typically are tested for their “statistical significance“ or “level of significance — which is an effort to determine if the results could have happened by pure chance alone. Popular levels of significance are 10% (0.1), 5% (0.05), 1% (0.01), 0.5% (0.005), and 0.1% (0.001). Choosing level of significance is a somewhat arbitrary task, but for many applications, a level of 5% is chosen. The most demanding standard of statistical significance is the 0.01 interval. This means that the probability for the test result happening by pure chance is only 1 out of 1,000. That, in turn, confers “significance” or credibility on the test result.
Lastly, an important principle in science is verifiability or replicability. A test should be repeated by other scientists who can confirm the alleged results. The more the test is replicated and the same results are obtained, the more confident we have that an alleged relationship indeed is true.
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