Abstract

FERNANDEZ APARICIO, T.; MINANA LOPEZ, B.; GUZMAN MARTINEZ-VALLS, P.  and  HITA VILLAPLANA, G.. Use of statistical analysis in original articles published in Actas Urologicas españolas: Accesibility for the reader. Actas Urol Esp [online]. 2003, vol.27, n.2, pp.103-109. ISSN 0210-4806.

OBJETIVES: To describe the use of statistical methods employed in original articles published in Actas Urológicas Españolas as the first step to cuantify the accesibility for the readers. METHODS: Observational, retrospective, descriptive and transversal study to analize all the original articles published in Actas Urológicas Españolas during the year 2000. Once the anectotic cases were excluded, 55 original studies were selected. In each article it was minuciously reviewed the methods and results sections, tables and figures included, to identify the statistical analisys used and to clasify them into 18 cathegories with three accesibilty levels as Emerson and Colditz and Mora y cols. previosly reported: descriptive statistics, bivariables analysis and complex analysis. A randomized sample of the originals were reviewed again by the same investigator three months later to evaluate the criteria fiability. The accesibility was defined as a) article dependent (rate of originals that readers with different statistical knowledge are able to understand) and b) analisys dependent (rate of statistical methods respect to the total performed overall the articles that readers are able to understand). RESULTS: Our major findings are that the more frecuently used technics are descriptive analysis (39.3%), bivariable tables (12.1%), survival analysis (10%), t Student and z tests (6%), and nonparametric tests (8.6%). The accesibility for a reader which statistical konowledge includes bivariable methods is 63.6% (IC 95% 49%-76%) and 79% (IC 95% 71%-85), article and analysis dependent respectively, rates that are similar to the reported for biomedical journals in our country. CONCLUSIONS: A great percentaje of original articles in Actas Urológicas Españolas includes complex analysis. It could be good that readers were able to increase our statistical and methodological konwledge to perform a critical approach to our publication.

Keywords : Statistical accesibility; Methodology; Statistical análisis; Estadistical methods.

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