[Assessment of the use of statistical methods in health research].
BACKGROUND
Computer use has lead to a great development of statistical methods.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the use of statistical methods in Chilean medical literature.


METHODS
Two hundred sixty four papers appeared in Revista Médica de Chile and Revista Chilena de Pediatría between 1983 and 1993 were reviewed.


RESULTS
Student's "t", Fisher's, and chi 2 test are the most frequently used statistical methods in 67% of papers. Correlation coefficients are used in 10% of papers. Multivariate methods are seldom used.


CONCLUSIONS
Statistical analysis of papers published in Chilean medical journals is restricted to very few methods.
Cumsille
F
F
Escuela de Salud Pública, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile.
Cumsille
M A
MA
Decinti
E
E
Montesinos
N
N
D002677:Chile; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D010506:Periodicals as Topic; D012106:Research; D013223:Statistics as Topic / Q000379:methods*