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Epi Wit & Wisdom Letters
More on DATA...
Dear Editor:
If you want to look as if
you had been exposed to a good education you have to write data ARE,
and I can see no alternative.
I have to admit that in 50
years from now this may have changed. For example, I have to confess
to using a singular verb for PROPAGANDA because it would look wrong if
I used the plural, although in Latin PROPAGANDUM is a thing to be
propagated and PROPAGANDA are things (plural) to be propagated.
Trevor Beard
Dear Editor:
I have no problem with the
word DATA. It is the plural form of datum. However, I find the word
ODDS, in the epidemiologic context, to be confusing and needing
clarification.
To me ODDS is an odd word.
It is spelled with an “s” but is singular. While the probability of
disease is 0.10, the ODDS of disease is 0.10. An odds ratio of three
indicates that the ODDS of disease IS increased by three-fold among
the exposed compared to the non-exposed.
Bernard Choi
Published July 1997
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