REVIEW OF STATISTICS USAGE IN THE AMERICAN-JOURNAL-OF-OBSTETRICS-AND-GYNECOLOGY

OBJECTIVE: Our purpose was an assessment of statistical analysis in st udies published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, as well as documentation of appropriate and inappropriate statistical application. STUDY DESIGN: All papers included in the Clinical Article s section and transactions of societies sections of the January throug h June 1994 issues of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecolog y (volume 170, numbers 1 to 6) were reviewed for statistical usage. Ea ch paper was given a rating for the thoroughness of the listing of app lied statistics and a rating for the appropriateness of statistical us age, when possible. RESULTS: Of the 190 available articles, 53 consist ed of studies void of statistics, 8 of which required statistics or cl aimed significance without the use of statistics. Therefore 145 articl es were included in the final analysis. Because of inappropriate or in complete descriptions of statistics used within the article (52.6%), t he ability to assess the appropriateness of usage was severely limited . However, 44 articles (30.3%) could be classified as having appropria te usage of statistics, whereas 46 articles (31.7%) were deemed to hav e inappropriate usage of statistics. Furthermore, 27 of these 46 artic les were noted to have serious flaws. CONCLUSION: The lack of complete and detailed listings of applied statistics made it difficult to asse ss the appropriateness of more than half the studies examined, suggest ing a need for more detailed guidelines as to the listing of statistic al procedures used. Despite this fact, nearly one third of the article s contained examples of statistics used inappropriately. These finding s suggest that a policy of statistical review be instituted.