E-DRUG: How to read a paper
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Dear E-druggers,
The summary of the fourth article in this British Medical
Journal (BMJ) series follows. Full article can be accessed
(website: http://www.bmj.com). Thanks.
Syed Rizwanuddin Ahmad
E-drug moderator
Email: srahmad@essential.org
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BMJ No 7104 Volume 315
Education and debate Saturday 9 August 1997
How to read a paper
Statistics for the non-statistician
Trisha Greenhalgh
This is the fourth in a series of 10 articles introducing
non-experts to finding medical articles and assessing their value
As medicine leans increasingly on mathematics no clinician can
afford to leave the statistical aspects of a paper to the
"experts"...... this article and the next in this series give a
checklist of preliminary questions to help you appraise the
statistical validity of a paper.
Summary points
- In assessing the choice of statistical tests in a paper, first
consider whether groups were analysed for their comparability at
baseline
- Does the test chosen reflect the type of data analysed (parametric
or non-parametric, paired or unpaired)?
- Has a two tailed test been performed whenever the effect of an
intervention could conceivably be a negative one?
- Have the data been analysed according to the original study
protocol?
- If obscure tests have been used, do the authors justify their
choice and provide a reference?
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