Department of Biostatistics & Health Informatics, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Indian J Med Res. 2023 Apr;157(4):353-357. doi: 10.4103/ijmr.IJMR_809_20.
BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Due to lack of appropriate statistical knowledge, published research articles contain various errors related to the design, analysis and interpretation of results in the area of biomedical research. If research contains statistical error, however, costly, it may be of no use and the purpose of the investigation gets defeated. Many biomedical research articles published in different peer reviewed journals may retain several statistical errors and flaws in them. This study aimed to examine the trend and status of application of statistics in biomedical research articles. Study design, sample size estimation and statistical measures are crucial components of a study. These points were evaluated in published original research articles to understand the use or misuse of statistical tools.
Three hundred original research articles from the latest issues of selected 37 journals were reviewed. These journals were from the five internationally recognized publication groups (CLINICAL KEY, BMJ Group, WILEY, CAMBRIDGE and OXFORD) accessible through the online library of SGPGI, Lucknow, India.
Among articles assessed under present investigation, 85.3 per cent (n=256) were observational, and 14.7 per cent (n=44) were interventional studies. In 93 per cent (n=279) of research articles, sample size estimation was not reproducible. The simple random sampling was encountered rarely in biomedical studies even though none of the articles was adjusted by design effect and, only five articles had used randomized test. The testing of assumption of normality was mentioned in only four studies before applying parametric tests.
INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: In order to present biomedical research results with reliable and precise estimates based on data, the role of engaging statistical experts need to be appreciated. Journals must have standard rules for reporting study design, sample size and data analysis tools. Careful attention is needed while applying any statistical procedure as, it will not only help readers to trust in the published articles, but also rely on the inferences the published articles draw.
由于缺乏适当的统计知识，已发表的研究文章在生物医学研究领域的设计、分析和结果解释中存在各种错误。然而，如果研究包含统计错误，那么它可能会变得毫无价值，并且调查的目的也会落空。在不同的同行评审期刊上发表的许多生物医学研究文章可能保留了其中的一些统计错误和缺陷。本研究旨在检查生物医学研究文章中统计学应用的趋势和现状。研究设计、样本量估计和统计措施是研究的关键组成部分。本研究评估了已发表的原始研究文章中的这些要点，以了解统计工具的使用或误用情况。
对从印度勒克瑙 SGPGI 在线图书馆可获得的五个国际公认的出版集团（CLINICAL KEY、BMJ 集团、WILEY、CAMBRIDGE 和 OXFORD）旗下的 37 种期刊的最新期刊中的 300 篇原始研究文章进行了回顾。
在所评估的文章中，85.3%（n=256）为观察性研究，14.7%（n=44）为干预性研究。在 93%（n=279）的研究文章中，样本量估计不可重现。即使没有文章通过设计效应进行调整，而且只有 5 篇文章使用了随机检验，但是在生物医学研究中很少采用简单随机抽样。在应用参数检验之前，只有 4 项研究提到了正态性检验假设。
为了根据数据可靠而精确地呈现生物医学研究结果，需要认识到聘请统计专家的作用。期刊必须制定报告研究设计、样本量和数据分析工具的标准规则。在应用任何统计程序时都需要小心谨慎，因为这不仅有助于读者信任已发表的文章，而且还可以依赖已发表文章的推论。
