title: [Assessment of the use of statistical methods in health research].
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Escuela de Salud Pública, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cumsille
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Cumsille
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Decinti
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Montesinos
mesh_terms: D002677:Chile; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D010506:Periodicals as Topic; D012106:Research; D013223:Statistics as Topic / Q000379:methods*