Use of statistics in the Journal of School Health 1979-1983: a content analysis.
A content analysis of the statistical methods employed in the research/evaluation articles published in Volumes 49-53 of the Journal of School Health (JOSH) was performed. Questions addressed included: To what extent does JOSH publish articles having a research/evaluation theme? Does knowledge of a few basic statistical techniques provide access to the statistical components of a high percentage of the research/evaluation reports published in JOSH? Which additional, but more complex techniques are used most often by authors? Results indicated that, to have access to the statistical content of about three-fourths of the research/evaluation reports published in JOSH, a reader would have to have learned descriptive statistics, analysis of contingency tables, analysis of variance, t-tests, and multiple comparison tests. Knowledge of these and other statistical procedures might assist school health practitioners read research/evaluation reports, and adapt the findings to their respective work settings. Moreover, content analyses can be tools for assessing the state-of-the-art of a profession, as well as helping to plan for practitioners' continuing education needs.
D010506:Periodicals as Topic; D012572:School Health Services; D013223:Statistics as Topic