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GidMK's profile
Health Nerd
Health Nerd
Health Nerd
Verified account
@GidMK

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Health NerdVerified account

@GidMK

Epidemiologist. Writer (Guardian, Observer etc). "Well known research trouble-maker". PhDing at @UoW Host of @senscipod Email gidmk.healthnerd@gmail.com he/him

Sydney, New South Wales
theguardian.com/profile/gideon…
Joined November 2015

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    1. Health Nerd‏Verified account @GidMK 20 Apr 2020

      According to the news, a study has shown that screen time for infants causes autism This is WILDLY INACCURATE NONSENSE, especially during #COVID19 when lots of people are getting more screen time than usualpic.twitter.com/gLHf1GEGuS

      4 replies 21 retweets 41 likes
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    2. Health Nerd‏Verified account @GidMK 20 Apr 2020

      Study is here:https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abstract/2764573 …

      1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
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    3. Health Nerd‏Verified account @GidMK 20 Apr 2020

      The basic idea of the study is very simple. The authors asked mothers how much screen time their 12-18 month old kids got, and then checked back a year or so later using a scale developed to assess autism-like symptomspic.twitter.com/OdHc5QOf2H

      1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
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    4. Health Nerd‏Verified account @GidMK 20 Apr 2020

      They found that kids who had been exposed to more screens at 12 months (but NOT 18) had a tiny increase in their average autism-symptom scorepic.twitter.com/5ov8fiIGin

      1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
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    5. Health Nerd‏Verified account @GidMK 20 Apr 2020

      What does this mean, in practical terms? Well, they used a modified M-CHAT scale, which gives you a 0-20 score. Given that the average score for this scale is pretty low (<10), a 4.2% increase would be a fraction of a point Pretty meaningless stuff, that

      1 reply 1 retweet 7 likes
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    6. Health Nerd‏Verified account @GidMK 20 Apr 2020

      It's also worth noting that, while the study did control for some demographic factors, they didn't look at many I can think of ~dozens~ of other things that may have contributed to potential ASD symptoms in kidspic.twitter.com/cvmipnP7os

      1 reply 0 retweets 6 likes
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      Health Nerd‏Verified account @GidMK 20 Apr 2020

      On top of this - and not reported in the press at all - is the fact that the authors actually conducted TWO analyses One was linear (we'll get back to this) and positive. The other looked at a yes/no autism-consistent score for diagnosis

      6:57 PM - 20 Apr 2020
      • 2 Likes
      • Jon Huang, MPH, PhD | BLM | 🙏🏽 'Fully Vaccinated (AZ)' Mathew Ling
      1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
        1. New conversation
        2. Health Nerd‏Verified account @GidMK 20 Apr 2020

          Everyone reported the positive linear analysis, but no one noted that actually, in terms of A CLINICALLY USEFUL DIAGNOSIS OF AUTISM, the study was entirely negative No association between screens and autism at all!pic.twitter.com/aPb02ebRaI

          2 replies 1 retweet 6 likes
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        3. Health Nerd‏Verified account @GidMK 20 Apr 2020

          Somehow, it gets worse The measure of "screen time" used in the study? Turns out it...wasn't great

          1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
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        4. Health Nerd‏Verified account @GidMK 20 Apr 2020

          Specifically, they asked people "Does your child watch TV/DVDs?" as a yes/no answer, and then asked "“Over the past 30 days, on average,how many hours per day did child watch TV and/or DVDs?” In 2010-2012

          1 reply 0 retweets 3 likes
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        5. Health Nerd‏Verified account @GidMK 20 Apr 2020

          Now, I'm no childhood autism researcher, but I'm pretty sure that asking only about TV and DVDs in 2010-12 would've missed a huge swathe of potential screen time For example, the first iPad came out April 2010

          1 reply 0 retweets 4 likes
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        6. Health Nerd‏Verified account @GidMK 20 Apr 2020

          But this isn't the last huge potential issue here Remember when I mentioned the LINEAR regression that spat out all the positive results? Yeh, about that

          1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
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        7. Health Nerd‏Verified account @GidMK 20 Apr 2020

          The variable that they were using this linear model to predict was a 0-20 numerical scale made up of integers (+1 for every 'yes' answer), likely clustered around low values This is not an ideal target for linear regression

          1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
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        8. Health Nerd‏Verified account @GidMK 20 Apr 2020

          It's essentially an ordinal outcome - an ordered scale from 0-20 indicating autism risk - and without any transformations (which were not reported) it's unlikely that the linear model used was appropriate for this analysis

          2 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
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        9. Health Nerd‏Verified account @GidMK 20 Apr 2020

          It's also worth remembering that this study DIDN'T LOOK AT FORMAL AUTISM DIAGNOSIS Even the more clinically useful variable was yes/no on a relatively arbitrary scale of autism risk

          1 reply 1 retweet 2 likes
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        10. Health Nerd‏Verified account @GidMK 20 Apr 2020

          The only real take-home from this study is that the children of parents who report that they watch more TV/DVD may have a tiny increase in their risk of autism-like symptoms but who knows because the stats were a bit dodgy anyway

          1 reply 0 retweets 5 likes
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        11. Health Nerd‏Verified account @GidMK 20 Apr 2020

          TL:DR - study wasn't great - didn't show that screens cause autism - barely even showed an association - don't worry about screens and your kids too much, there's a pandemic on

          2 replies 1 retweet 12 likes
          Show this thread
        12. End of conversation

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