Introduction:

Biostatistics is fundamental in evidence-based medicine. For a greater performance in the learning of this subject thinking about the future doctors, it is crucial the analysis of the anxiety experienced by the medical student during the training in this subject in degree.

Aims:

To document the anxiety towards the statistics experienced by the students of Degree in Medicine and to assess its relation with the performance in biostatistics.

Subjects and methods:

Observational, transversal and analytical study in students of the first year of Degree in Medicine at the Faculty of Health Sciences and Sports of Huesca (University of Zaragoza). For the measurement of anxiety towards statistics, the Spanish version of the Statistical Anxiety Scale (SAS) survey was used.

Results:

They answered 91.1% ( n =41) of the students. The average SAS score was 2.51 ± 0.61. The sub-scale scores indicated that students suffer from low or moderate anxiety for asking for help and interpreting the statistical results, and somewhat higher for the statistical test. The study of the correlation showed that those students with a lower level of anxiety for asking for help and interpreting the statistical results obtained a higher score in biostatistics test.

Conclusions:

Medical students show a moderate anxiety towards statistics, although more research is needed focusing on changes in teaching methodology, since the beginning of the degree, to reduce this anxiety.

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