Simultaneous inference in epidemiological studies.

Some difficulties encountered in using and interpreting significance tests in both exploratory and hypothesis testing epidemiological studies are discussed. Special consideration is given to the problems of simultaneous statistical inference--how are inferences to be modified when many significance tests are performed on the same set of data? Although some partial solutions are available, greater emphasis on estimation methods and less use of and reliance on significance testing in epidemiological studies is more appropriate.