ANALYISIS OF MULTIPLE COMPARISON ERRORS USING GROUND REACTION FORCE DATA

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This technical note examined the effect of uncorrected multiple statistical comparisons that are often inappropriately reported in the applied biomechanics literature. Bilateral ground reaction forces (1000 Hz) were collected for a single subject performing twenty vertical jumps to create multiple comparisons of discrete kinetic variables. Nine of twenty comparisons were statistically significant using multiple t tests, while only seven were truly statistically significant when controlling for inflation of type I error. Most of the differences observed were not of practical significance to performance. The data confirmed the danger of inflation of type I errors in biomechanics and not interpreting the results based on meaningful effects or previous literature.