As a biostatistician, Dr Sarah Barry often rails against the news headlines, particularly in relation to health. We are variously told that alcohol is good for us/bad for us, bacon will give us cancer, rice will poison us, screen time will turn our children into monsters…. It can be difficult to know how to interpret all of these messages and how to apply them to our lives. In this talk we will take a look at a few recent headlines and try and tease out the detail behind the sensationalism. We will also offer up some tools that we can all use to critically appraise health research in the news.

About the Speaker:
Sarah Barry is a Lecturer in Statistics at the University of Strathclyde. She has worked as a biostatistician designing and analysing clinical trials, complex interventions, observational studies and linkage of administrative datasets in a wide range of medical areas, including physical and mental health, early years development and allocation of funds to NHS health boards. She is passionate about interpretation and communication of science and statistics, particularly to people with no background in statistics.

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Doors at 7.15, kickoff at 7.30
This is event is free to attend, although we will be asking for donations at the end of the talk. Participants are under no obligation whatsoever to donate, however please rest assured that the money we collect doesn’t end up in anyone’s pocket – it is used to fund our overhead costs, and travel/accommodation for our speakers who come from further afield.

Accessibility: As per the policy of the Admiral Bar, access to the venue “can only be provided to patrons who are sufficiently mobile and capable of independently evacuating premises, or with the minimum of assistance”. Unfortunately, this leaves the basement inaccessible to most wheelchair users.