The reading, writing, and arithmetic of the medical literature, part 2: critical evaluation of statistical reporting.
OBJECTIVE
To offer suggestions to help improve clinicians' understanding of the statistical analyses in the literature and their use of these methods in their own medical writings.


METHODS
Literature searches began at the National Library of Medicine's online database and were traced to primary sources.


METHODS
All referenced information in this article was cited from primary sources.


RESULTS
Physicians should be able to determine the variables studied and how they were measured, the comparisons that were made, the difference (with 95% confidence interval) between the groups, the exact P value for the difference, the statistical test used in the analysis, whether the data conformed to the assumptions of the test, whether the study had adequate statistical power, and the clinical importance of the difference.


CONCLUSIONS
Clinicians should know how to interpret statistical results so that they can use medical science to its full extent in treating patients.
Mansfield
Lyndon
L
Western Sky Medical Research and Department of Pediatrics, Texas Tech Regional Health Science Center, El Paso, Texas, USA. immunman@pol.net
D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing; D006801:Humans; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010820:Physicians