Are those dosages a fair comparison (ibuprofen 600x3, celecoxib 100x2, and naproxen 375x2 daily)? Do they each provide the same level of pain reduction?
If not, there is literally no way to compensate for that level of statistical bias. Stomach/kidney/heart damage is not linear, and there's no mention of when people gave up taking the medications.
tl;dr - they admit that taking more than 200mg of celecoxib does some damage, and 800mg doses (they apparently were limited by regulations to 200mg/day) showed the same heart damage they expected to see. Time magazine is a horrible source
If not, there is literally no way to compensate for that level of statistical bias. Stomach/kidney/heart damage is not linear, and there's no mention of when people gave up taking the medications.
For someone who actually wants to read the study, here's the link: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1611593#t=article
tl;dr - they admit that taking more than 200mg of celecoxib does some damage, and 800mg doses (they apparently were limited by regulations to 200mg/day) showed the same heart damage they expected to see. Time magazine is a horrible source