Statistical awareness of research workers in British anaesthesia.
A survey was made of simple statistical errors in the precirculated booklets of abstracts to the Anaesthetic Research Society. In the five booklets June 1988-November 1989, only four of 19 figures included clearly labelled error bars when necessary; in four figures there was no indication of variabi...
| Publicado en: | BJA: The British Journal of Anaesthesia Vol. 68; no. 3; pp. 321 - 325 |
|---|---|
| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | research Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
Elsevier B.V.
Mar1992
|
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=104740166&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 104740166 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 00070912 1FZ jtl: BJA: The British Journal of Anaesthesia issn: 00070912 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Mar1992 vid: 68 iid: 3 pid: 467 pub: Elsevier B.V. place: New York, New York artinfo: ui: 104740166 104740166 NLM1547061 2011098125 NLM1547061 104740166 ppf: 321 ppct: 4 formats: tig: atl: Statistical awareness of research workers in British anaesthesia. aug: au: Goodman, N W Hughes, A O affil: University Department of Anaesthetics, Medical School Unit, Southmead Hospital, Bristol. sug: subj: Anesthesia Statistics and Numerical Data Cognition Great Britain Human Publishing Research ab: A survey was made of simple statistical errors in the precirculated booklets of abstracts to the Anaesthetic Research Society. In the five booklets June 1988-November 1989, only four of 19 figures included clearly labelled error bars when necessary; in four figures there was no indication of variability. In a more detailed survey of the 115 abstracts presented in 1990, errors were placed in categories: the presentation of method or choice of statistical test; variability; probability. There was a total of 115 errors in 61 abstracts, which was 65% of the 94 abstracts presenting numerical information. The most common errors were: failure to identify tests of inferential statistics (n = 29 abstracts); failure to present data to allow interpretation of P values (n = 21); misuse of SEM (n = 13). Confidence limits were given in seven abstracts. Type II (beta) error was not searched for formally, but no abstract that reported a negative result included the power of the study. With this level of elementary errors, there is considerable room for improvement in the use of straightforward guidelines to the presentation of statistical information. The problem is not confined to British anaesthesia: in more than 30% (25 of 71) of the figures contained in abstracts of the International Anesthesia Research Society in 1990, plots of variables against time showed only mean values. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: research Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
|---|