Publications from multicentre clinical trials: Statistical techniques and accessibility to the reader

Marta J. Marsh, Barbara S. Hawkins

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

Articles from multicentre randomized clinical trials were analysed by methods adapted from Emerson and Colditz and Juzych et al. to compare the frequency with which different statistical methods are used by clinical trials investigators with the frequency used by other researchers, and to determine how much statistical knowledge is required to interpret the statistical treatment of data from clinical trials. We observed differences between the frequency of usage of statistical methods and the accessibility of the clinical trials publications and those of all medical research articles published by specific journals. Clinical trials publications are less accessible than others in medical journals to the reader who knows only descriptive statistics, t‐tests, contingency tables, power calculations, and life table methods. Many more statistical methods must be known by a reader to understand fully publications regarding treatment group comparisons for the primary outcomes of interest from clinical trials.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)2393-2406
Number of pages14
JournalStatistics in Medicine
Volume13
Issue number23-24
DOIs
StatePublished - 1994
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Epidemiology
  • Statistics and Probability

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