Rao Masood Hussain, Khan Nazeer
Pakistan Medical Research Council, Karachi.
J Pak Med Assoc. 2010 Sep;60(9):745-50.
To compare the statistical methods, types of article and design of studies used in 1998 and 2007 articles of leading indexed and non-indexed medical journals of Pakistan.
Six leading medical journals of Pakistan: (1) JCPSP, (2) JPMA, (3) JAMC, (4) PJMS, (5) PJMR and (6) PAFMJ, were selected for this study. Articles reviewed were 1057 to achieve the above mentioned objective.
The articles reviewed for 1998 and 2007 were 366 and 691, respectively. Original articles contributed the maximum percentage of 65.6%, followed by case reports with 24.8%. The contribution of case reports in 1998 was 20.5% which increased to 27.1% in 2007. There was no statistically significant difference between 'indexed' and 'non-indexed' journals for different type of statistical methods in 1998 or 2007. In total, 749 articles were categorized as 'original articles' or 'short communication'. Among them, 51% articles mentioned study design and 67.3% of them were correct for the respective methodology. In 1998, 202 (74%) articles did not use any statistics or indicated only descriptive statistics, while in 2007, 239 (50.2%) articles did the same. The reader who was familiar with t-test and contingency tables in 1998 could have understood 97.4% of the scientific articles. However, this percentage dropped to 83.0% in 2007.
Quality of elaborating methods and usage of biostatistics in 6 leading Pakistani medical journals improved from 1998 to 2007, but has still to come up as compared to other western medical journals.
比较1998年和2007年巴基斯坦主要索引和非索引医学期刊文章中使用的统计方法、文章类型和研究设计。
本研究选取了巴基斯坦6种主要医学期刊：（1）《巴基斯坦医学和外科学会杂志》（JCPSP）、（2）《巴基斯坦医学协会杂志》（JPMA）、（3）《陆军医学团杂志》（JAMC）、（4）《旁遮普医学科学杂志》（PJMS）、（5）《旁遮普医学研究杂志》（PJMR）和（6）《巴基斯坦空军医学杂志》（PAFMJ）。为实现上述目标，共审阅了1057篇文章。
1998年和2007年审阅的文章分别为366篇和691篇。原创文章占比最高，为65.6%，其次是病例报告，占24.8%。1998年病例报告的占比为20.5%，2007年增至27.1%。1998年或2007年，不同类型统计方法在“索引”和“非索引”期刊之间无统计学显著差异。总共749篇文章被归类为“原创文章”或“简短通讯”。其中，51%的文章提及了研究设计，其中67.3%的文章在各自方法上是正确的。1998年，202篇（74%）文章未使用任何统计学方法或仅表明了描述性统计，而2007年，239篇（50.2%）文章也是如此。1998年熟悉t检验和列联表的读者能够理解97.4%的科学文章。然而，2007年这一比例降至83.0%。
1998年至2007年，巴基斯坦6种主要医学期刊阐述方法的质量和生物统计学的使用有所提高，但与其他西方医学期刊相比仍有待提升。
