School of Food and Nutritional Sciences, Brescia University College, London, ON.
Department of Medical Biophysics, Western University, London, ON.
Can J Diet Pract Res. 2021 Jun 1;82(2):59-67. doi: 10.3148/cjdpr-2021-005. Epub 2021 Apr 20.
Despite the widespread use of statistical techniques in quantitative research, methodological flaws and inadequate statistical reporting persist. The objective of this study is to evaluate the quality of statistical reporting and procedures in all original, quantitative articles published in the (CJDPR) from 2010 to 2019 using a checklist created by our research team. In total, 107 articles were independently evaluated by 2 raters. The hypothesis or objective(s) was clearly stated in 97.2% of the studies. Over half (51.4%) of the articles reported the study design and 57.9% adequately described the statistical techniques used. Only 21.2% of the studies that required a prestudy sample size calculation reported one. Of the 281 statistical tests conducted, 88.3% of them were correct. values >0.05-0.10 were reported as "statistically significant" and/or a "trend" in 11.4% of studies. While this evaluation reveals both strengths and areas for improvement in the quality of statistical reporting in CJDPR, we encourage dietitians to pursue additional statistical training and/or seek the assistance of a statistician. Future research should consider validating this new checklist and using it to evaluate the statistical quality of studies published in other nutrition journals and disciplines.
尽管统计技术在定量研究中得到了广泛应用，但方法上的缺陷和不充分的统计报告仍然存在。本研究的目的是使用我们研究小组创建的检查表，评估 2010 年至 2019 年期间在 (CJDPR) 发表的所有原始定量文章的统计报告和程序的质量。共有 107 篇文章由 2 名评审员独立评估。97.2%的研究明确陈述了假设或目标。超过一半（51.4%）的文章报告了研究设计，57.9%的文章充分描述了所使用的统计技术。只有 21.2%的需要预研究样本量计算的研究报告了预研究样本量。在进行的 281 项统计检验中，88.3%的检验结果是正确的。在 11.4%的研究中，将 值>0.05-0.10 报告为“具有统计学意义”和/或“趋势”。虽然这项评估揭示了 CJDPR 中统计报告质量的优势和改进领域，但我们鼓励营养师寻求额外的统计培训和/或寻求统计学家的帮助。未来的研究应考虑验证这个新的检查表，并将其用于评估其他营养期刊和学科发表的研究的统计质量。
