EvidenceBased Statistics: Appropriate Approach For Description and Analysis of Research Data

Baneshi, Mohammad Reza; Hajimaghsoodi, Saeide; Rastegari, Azam; Mahmoodi, Mohammad Reza

EvidenceBased Statistics: Appropriate Approach For Description and Analysis of Research Data

Document Type : Editorial

Authors

Mohammad Reza Baneshi ¹

saeide hajimaghsoodi ²

Azam Rastegari ²

Mohammad Reza Mahmoodi ³

¹ PhD. in Biostatistics, Assistant professor of Biostatistic Department modelling in health center, Health School, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Iran

² M.Sc. student of Biostatistics, Health school, kerman University of Medical Sciences, Iran

³ Ph.D. in Nutrition, Assistant Professor of Nutrition Department , Health school, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Iran

Abstract

In recent years using statistics in medical sciences is increasing and statistics is an essential part of each research At present for each study design and for each type of data there are appropriate statistical methods which yield to valid results and inferences Familiarity with such methods is essential especially for those involved in the field of medical research as they might confuse majority of readers who are not familiar with details of statistical analysis and data interpretation Other consequences include waste of money time and energy spent for each research project In recent years some papers have been published to enhance researchers knowledge of statistics and its application in research methodology but still there are many methodological mistakes in manuscripts In this article we aim to demonstrate appropriate methods for data analysis We will discuss importance of confidence intervals and their advantages over Pvalue We will finally highlight common errors in data analysis such as univariate methods ignoring power in detection of difference between groups and using correlation coefficient to assess the agreement between scores

Keywords

Evidenced Based Statistics

Description

Analysis

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