In order to properly appreciate the precise inferential move and its wobbly conceptual basis, it will be instructive to consider the use of fiducial probability in interpreting confidence intervals.
Interpreting confidence intervals with respect to the minimum clinically important difference should be considered.
Therefore, the way of re-interpreting confidence intervals described in this paper does not yet constitute a method.
A properly interpreted confidence interval allows these two aspects of the results to be inferred separately and quantitatively.
Interpreting confidence intervals this way also helps investigators visualise the evidence of effect from the pilot trial.
By 'exact' we mean, under the random effects model for meta-regression (1), that these two frequentist methods provide confidence intervals with exactly the nominal coverage probability (subject to the way we interpret empty confidence intervals, see below).
However, those values are difficult to interpret with confidence because they have not been validated by 29Si NMR spectroscopy.
When asked about the young doctors' expectations, and which investigations they thought they should be able to interpret with confidence following appropriate teaching, most cited plain films, as expected.
Felid muscle mass scaling was calculated by Davis to show slight positive allometry, however, the very small sample size (5 individuals, 3 species) makes this result difficult to interpret with confidence [31].
