Robinson P M, Menakuru S, Reed M W, Balasubramanian S P
Academic Unit of Surgical Oncology, University of Sheffield.
Surgeon. 2009 Feb;7(1):6-9. doi: 10.1016/s1479-666x(09)80059-0.
Surgical research articles utilise a variety of descriptive and inferential methods to present and analyse data. The aim of this study was to determine the appropriateness of descriptive methods (e.g. mean, median, SD, range) and survey the use of inferential methods (statistical tests) in key general surgical journals.
Articles were retrieved from the first three issues of four general surgical journals (Annals of Surgery, British Journal of Surgery, The Surgeon and the Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England) in the year 2005. Only original articles were included. Study characteristics, use and appropriateness of descriptive statistics and the number and types of statistical methods employed were evaluated.
Of the 144 articles analysed, 119 made use of continuous data. Of these, the use of descriptive methods was inadequate or inappropriate in 50%. The use of '+/-' to describe data dispersion without further explanation occurred in 6.7% and standard error of mean (SEM) was inappropriately used in a further 9.2% of the articles. No statistical methods were described in 23% of the articles. The six most common tests used (Pearson's chi-square, Fisher's exact test, unpaired t test, Mann-Whitney test, log rank and the Cox proportional hazards) accounted for the majority (69%) of the statistical methods employed.
These results highlight the need for training surgical researchers in 'data description and reporting' and for improved screening by journal reviewers/editors. Critical appraisal of surgical research can be undertaken with a comprehensive understanding of only a limited number of statistical methods.
外科研究文章运用多种描述性和推断性方法来呈现和分析数据。本研究的目的是确定描述性方法（如均值、中位数、标准差、范围）的适用性，并调查主要普通外科期刊中推断性方法（统计检验）的使用情况。
从2005年四种普通外科期刊（《外科年鉴》、《英国外科学杂志》、《外科医生》和《英国皇家外科医学院年鉴》）的前三期中检索文章。仅纳入原创文章。评估研究特征、描述性统计的使用和适用性以及所采用统计方法的数量和类型。
在分析的144篇文章中，119篇使用了连续数据。其中，50%的文章对描述性方法的使用不充分或不恰当。6.7%的文章在未作进一步解释的情况下使用“+/-”来描述数据离散度，另有9.2%的文章不恰当地使用了均值标准误（SEM）。23%的文章未描述任何统计方法。所使用的六种最常见检验（Pearson卡方检验、Fisher精确检验、非配对t检验、Mann-Whitney检验、对数秩检验和Cox比例风险模型）占所采用统计方法的大部分（69%）。
这些结果凸显了对外科研究人员进行“数据描述与报告”培训以及期刊审稿人/编辑加强筛选的必要性。只需全面了解有限数量的统计方法，就能对外科研究进行批判性评价。
