J Korean Ophthalmol Soc.  2003 Mar;44(3):738-743.

The Review of Statistical Methods in Articles of Journal of Korean Ophthalmology Society

• Park MH
• Lee JJ

Abstract

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study is to assess the validity and to review the errors of each category of inferential statistics used in Journal of Korean Ophthalmology Society (JKOS). METHODS: We reviewed 46 original articles of Journal of Korean Ophthalmology Society from January 2000 to March 2000 to assess 4 categories (the methods of statistical analysis, the way how to describe the statistical techniques, the validity of the used statistical techniques, and the interpretation of the results). RESULTS: With the types of statistics, comparison of mean was most commonly used (51.6%), followed by contingency table (16.1%), regression (15.1%), correlation (9.7%), and etc. (7.5%). With the way of describing the statistical techniques, 28 articles contained full description of every used statistical method, 15 had simply the list of statistical techniques, 2 had some methods omitted in description, and 1 was lack of explanation of statistical method. With the validity of the used statistical techniques, the most powerful statistical method was used in 66.7%, less powerful method in 8.6%, and improper method in 24.7% respectively. With the interpretation of the results, 26 articles drew correct conclusions via proper statistical method, 5 had errors in the interpretation of statistical results, 13 directed to incorrect conclusions due to improper statistical techniques, and 2 could not be judged due to omitted description of statistical method. CONCLUSIONS: We found that univariate or bivariate statistics rather than multivariate statistics were more preferred in JKOS, and authors should be more familiar with broad and precise knowledges of statistics.

Keyword

Inferential statistics; Ophthalmic journals; Statistical validity

MeSH Terms

Ophthalmology*