Physics

Cryptography

Mathematics

Post-hoc analysis

Power analysis

Statistics

Psychology

Power (physics)

Monte Carlo method

Dentistry

Data science

Computer science

Quantum mechanics

Post hoc

Computer security

Medicine

General Psychiatry

Power analysis is a key component for planning prospective studies such as clinical trials. However, some journals in biomedical and psychosocial sciences ask for power analysis for data already collected and analysed before accepting manuscripts for publication. In this report, post hoc power analysis for retrospective studies is examined and the informativeness of understanding the power for detecting significant effects of the results analysed, using the same data on which the power analysis is based, is scrutinised. Monte Carlo simulation is used to investigate the performance of posthoc power analysis.

Post hoc power analysis: is it an informative and meaningful analysis?