An Assessment of Statistical Validity of Articles Published in the Journal of Korean Acupuncture & Moxibusition Society - from 1984 to 2002 -

대한침구학회지 논문의 통계적 오류에 관한 연구

This study was carried out to investigate statistical validity of medical articles that used various statistical techniques such as t-test, analysis of variance, correlation analysis, regression analysis and chi-square test. For study 429 original articles using those statistical methods were selected from Journal of Korean Acupuncture & Moxibusition Society published from 1984 to 2002. 429 original articles were reviewed to analyzed the statistical procedures. Results are summarized as follows : 1. In this study 93 articles(21.68%) of 429 ones didn't report statement of statistical method in detail. 2. 53 articles(12.53%) didn't report p-value in correctly, and 245 articles(57.11 %) used mean${\pm}$standard error (Mean${\pm}$SEM.) and 109 articles used mean${\pm}$standard deviation(Mean${\pm}$SD.). All of 23 articles using nonparametric statistical techniques made an error to central tendency or dispersion. 3. 175 articles(59.93%) and 14 articles(4.79%) of 292 ones made an error to description of equal variances and normal distribution. 4. 99 articles(50%) of 185 ones misused t-test and 4 articles of 5 ones misused chi-square test. 5. 28 articles(73.68%) of 38 ones using discrete variable misused parametric technique such as t-test or ANOVA. 2 articles and 1 article of 125 ones choosing paired samples misused independent t-test and Mann-Whitney U test. 6. 20 articles using analysis of variance didn't use multiple comparison.