[Plea for the training and continuing education of physicians in biostatistics. Results of a survey among Belgian physicians].

In order to test physicians' knowledge of statistics, a survey was conducted with a questionnaire in a sample of 250 doctors registered in the province of Brabant. The questionnaire consisted of two parts: a 9-item self-assessment test, and an opinion questionnaire about the importance of biostatistics and of its teaching. Forty-six physicians completed the two parts (18.4% of the sample); two other physicians only completed the second part of the questionnaire. For each subject, a score was computed: this score, ranging from 0 to 9, represents a simple sum of the right answers to the questionnaire. The median score is 2 (mean = 2.4; standard deviation = 1.8). No difference in the scores were found between groups defined by sex, the university of graduation, by the practice, general or specialized. The scores were not correlated to age, nor to graduation. The data from the opinion questionnaire show that the problem of biostatistics is considered important by 69% of the physicians, and that 88% of them think that this problem justifies training. With such training, physicians should be able to read the biomedical literature with discrimination, which supports the viewpoint of several authors. Although the small size of the sample and the small rate of answers might bias these results, we believe that physicians should be trained in statistics, which has become a pillar of medicine.