An Evaluation of the Statistical Techniques Used in Papers of the Journal of Sasang Constitutional Medicine (2000-2009)

1. Objectives The purpose of this study is to assess the statistical methods used in the Journal of Sasang Constitutional Medicine and to identify the types of errors in the statistical analysis. 2. Methods We have reviewed quantitative articles published in the Journal of Sasang Constitutional Medicine from 2000 to 2009. Except for the case report, a total of 505 articles was reviewed by year. We focused on the methods of statistics in these articles. We have analysed the number of thesis used the statistical methods, the number of the statistical methods, the types of the statistical methods, and the errors of the statistical methods with the object of 202 thesis used the statistical method. 3. Results 1. Of the 370 articles, 202 used inferential statistics. 2. The most dominant was the thesis with one type of the statistical method forming 61.9% (125 thesis) of the total. 3. The ANOVA was the statistic of choice overall (40.1%), followed by the t-test (35.6%). 4. By examining the errors of the statistical methods, there were 49 thesis with errors among 81 thesis using ANOVA, 25 thesis among 72 thesis using t-test, and 18 over 62 thesis using chi-squared test. 4. Conclusions We have found various mistakes or misuses in the applications of statistical methodologies in the articles published in the Journal of Sasang Constitutional Medicine. It is necessary to present the cases of inappropriate statistical methods in order to improve the quality of academic researches. So long as Sasang constitutional medicine uses the statistical methods, researchers should fully examine and be aware of the statistical methods which they wish to use through other research articles, and statistic publications.

최근 10년간(2000-2009) 사상체질의학회지 게재논문의 통계분석방법에 대한 연구