TY - JOUR
T1 - Publications from multicentre clinical trials
T2 - Statistical techniques and accessibility to the reader
AU - Marsh, Marta J.
AU - Hawkins, Barbara S.
PY - 1994
Y1 - 1994
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
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U2 - 10.1002/sim.4780132305
DO - 10.1002/sim.4780132305
M3 - Article
C2 - 7701142
AN - SCOPUS:0028583066
SN - 0277-6715
VL - 13
SP - 2393
EP - 2406
JO - Statistics in Medicine
JF - Statistics in Medicine
IS - 23-24
ER -