The Triumph Of The Null Hypothesis: Epidemiology In An Age Of Change

The recent uncertainty surrounding the relation between hormone replacement therapy and cardiovascular disease (HRT-CVD) has again ignited the debate about the value and future of epidemiology. The issue this time is more serious than the optimal amount of fruits and vegetables we need to eat daily, as it involves the devastating irony that millions of healthy women have been encouraged to take a medication that may put them at risk of the same ailment they were trying to ward off.3 Underlying this dilemma is a credibility crisis brought about by inconsistencies in the results of various epidemiological studies.