Some Brief Remarks on Statistical Significance and “Trends” in Gerontological Research

Drawing on his editorial experience at relevant scientific journals and his experience in teaching the basics of scientific article formatting/design at Lomonosov Moscow State University, the author analyzes the current state of statistical analysis of results of the gerontological research aimed at understanding the mechanisms of aging and search for drugs that slow down this process and suppress the development of age-related diseases (geroprotectors, anti-aging drugs). It is emphasized that in many cases, such analysis is either not performed at all or is performed incorrectly. Specifically, authors periodically analyze data that does not follow a normal distribution using a parametric Student’s t-test. Moreover, many researchers, having failed to obtain reliable results (p > 0.05), increasingly replace the term “significance” in their articles with the term “trend,” which seems completely unacceptable. Unfortunately, this problem affects not only gerontology but all biomedical research. It is suggested that greater attention should be paid to this issue by both reviewers of relevant articles and editors of the journals in which they are published. In addition, the importance of teaching the basics of statistical processing of research results to students and PhD students of biomedical institutes and relevant university schools is emphasized.