Hellems Martha A, Gurka Matthew J, Hayden Gregory F
Department of Pediatrics, University of Virginia, Box 800386, Charlottesville, VA 22908-0386, USA.
Pediatrics. 2007 Jun;119(6):1083-8. doi: 10.1542/peds.2006-2330.
Pediatric residents are expected to study research design and statistical methods to enable them to critically appraise the pediatric literature and apply the findings to patient care. However, it is not clear how best to teach these skills or even which statistical concepts are most important. An earlier study demonstrated that the statistical complexity of articles published in Pediatrics increased from 1952 to 1982. The goals of our study were to assess whether this trend has continued and to determine the statistical measures and procedures most commonly encountered in Pediatrics.
We reviewed the print research articles published in Pediatrics, volume 115, 2005, and recorded the statistical measures and procedures reported in each article to determine how many articles used statistics or statistical procedures and what statistical procedures were encountered most commonly.
The proportion of articles that used any inferential statistics increased from 48% in 1982 to 89% in 2005. The mean number of inferential procedures per article increased from 2.5 in 1982 to 3.9 in 2005. The most commonly encountered statistical procedures or measures were descriptive statistics, tests of proportions, measures of risk, logistic regression, t tests, nonparametric tests, analysis of variance, multiple linear regression, sample size and power calculation, and tests of correlation. However, a reader who is familiar with only these concepts can understand the analyses used in only 47% of articles.
Our results confirm a trend toward the use of new and increasingly complex statistical techniques in Pediatrics. Educational efforts might most profitably focus on the principles underlying statistical analysis rather than on specific statistical tests. Authors, reviewers, and journal editors have a greater responsibility for ensuring that statistical procedures are used appropriately, as it may be increasingly unrealistic to expect readers to fully understand the statistical analyses used in journal articles.
儿科住院医师需要学习研究设计和统计方法，以便能够批判性地评估儿科文献，并将研究结果应用于患者护理。然而，目前尚不清楚如何最好地教授这些技能，甚至不清楚哪些统计概念最为重要。一项早期研究表明，1952年至1982年发表在《儿科学》杂志上的文章的统计复杂性有所增加。我们研究的目的是评估这一趋势是否持续，并确定《儿科学》杂志中最常遇到的统计方法和程序。
我们回顾了2005年第115卷《儿科学》杂志上发表的印刷版研究文章，记录每篇文章中报告的统计方法和程序，以确定使用统计方法或统计程序的文章数量，以及最常遇到的统计程序是什么。
使用任何推断统计学方法的文章比例从1982年的48%增加到2005年的89%。每篇文章中推断程序的平均数量从1982年的2.5增加到2005年的3.9。最常遇到的统计程序或方法是描述性统计、比例检验、风险测量、逻辑回归、t检验、非参数检验、方差分析、多元线性回归、样本量和功效计算以及相关性检验。然而，仅熟悉这些概念的读者只能理解47%的文章中所使用的分析。
我们的结果证实了在儿科学领域使用新的且日益复杂的统计技术的趋势。教育工作可能最有益地集中在统计分析的基本原理上，而不是特定的统计检验。作者、审稿人和期刊编辑有更大的责任确保统计程序得到恰当使用，因为期望读者完全理解期刊文章中所使用的统计分析可能越来越不现实。
