PUBLICATIONS FROM MULTICENTER CLINICAL-TRIALS - STATISTICAL TECHNIQUES AND ACCESSIBILITY TO THE READER

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 cli nical trials investigators with the frequency used by other researcher s, and to determine how much statistical knowledge is required to inte rpret the statistical treatment of data from clinical trials. We obser ved 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. Clinica l trials publications are less accessible than others in medical journ als to the reader who knows only descriptive statistics, t-tests, cont ingency tables, power calculations, and life table methods. Many more statistical methods must be known by a reader to understand fully publ ications regarding treatment group comparisons for the primary outcome s of interest from clinical trials.