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What do doctors know about statistics?
Author(s) -
Wulff Henrik R.,
Andersen Bjørn,
Brandenhoff Preben,
Guttler Flemming
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
statistics in medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.996
H-Index - 183
eISSN - 1097-0258
pISSN - 0277-6715
DOI - 10.1002/sim.4780060103
Subject(s) - medical statistics , statistics , computer science , mathematics
A multiple choice test with nine statistical questions was sent to a random sample of Danish doctors to assess their knowledge of elementary statistical expressions (SD, SE, p < 0·05, p > 0·05 and r ). One hundred and forty eight (59 per cent) of 250 doctors answered the questions. The test was also completed by 97 participants in postgraduate courses in research methods, mainly junior hospital doctors. The median number of correct answers was 2·4 in the random sample and 4·0 in the other sample of doctors. It is concluded that the statistical knowledge of most doctors is so limited that they cannot be expected to draw the right conclusions from those statistical analyses which are found in papers in medical journals. Sixty‐five per cent of the doctors in the random sample stated that it is very important that this problem is raised.