TITLE: Clinical methodologies and incidence of appropriate statistical testing in orthopaedic spine literature.
Are statistics misleading?
AUTHORS:
Vrbos LA; Lorenz MA; Peabody EH; McGregor
MAUTHOR AFFILIATION: Loyola University
Medical Center, Maywood, Illinois.
SOURCE: Spine 1993 Jun
15;18(8):1021-9CITATION IDS: PMID: 8367770
UI: 93377123
ABSTRACT: An analysis of
300 randomly drawn orthopaedic spine
articles, published between 1970 and 1990,
was performed to assess the quality of
biostatistical testing and research design
reported in the literature.
Of the 300
articles, 269 dealt with topics of an
experimental nature, while 31 documented
descriptive studies.
Statistical
deficiencies were identified in 54.0% of the
total articles.
Conclusions drawn as the
result of misleading significance values
occurred in 124 experimental studies (46%)
while 96 failed to document the form of
analysis chosen (35.7%).
Statistical
testing was not documented in 34 studies
(12.6%), while 20 (7.4%) employed analyses
considered inappropriate for the specific
design structure.
