Julie Rehmeyer has a decent article about the Lancet studies in Science News. Unlike Neil Munro and Megan McArdle, she doesn’t have an axe to grind. She talks to experts in the field like Jana Asher instead of non-experts like Michael Spagat:
The conflicting studies in Iraq show just how tricky it is to apply these methods in messy real-life situations. About the Lancet study, Asher says, “I don’t think there was anything obvious in what they did that someone can point to and say this method is flawed. But the WHO study used appropriate methodology too.”
The most suspect part of the Lancet study, Asher says, is that the researchers didn’t supervise the survey workers closely. On the other hand, the World Health Organization relied on government workers to administer the questionnaires. People can be intimidated by government workers and be less inclined to say much, a phenomenon that is particularly common in unstable countries. The only way to resolve the conflict, Asher says, is to do yet another study, with an even more careful design.