Numeracy among trainees: are we preparing physicians for evidence-based medicine?

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Health Literacy
• Patient Safety

Background:

• Physicians require numerical literacy (numeracy) for evidence-based medicine and patient communication.
• Previous studies indicated suboptimal numeracy among medical students.
• This study investigated numeracy and risk understanding in medical trainees across multiple institutions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the numeracy skills of medical students and surgical residents.
• To evaluate their understanding of risk analysis and risk reduction.
• To determine the correlation between numeracy, risk understanding, and confidence in medical training.

Main Methods:

• A validated 3-item numeracy questionnaire was administered to 308 medical students and 50 surgical residents.
• Participants were assessed on their ability to interpret survival data for adjuvant chemotherapy recommendations.
• Risk understanding, confidence levels (Likert scale), and demographic data were collected; logistic regression and Pearson correlation were used for analysis.

Main Results:

• 69.0% of participants achieved perfect basic numeracy, with no significant differences across training levels.
• Confidence in recommending treatment showed a slight, non-significant increase with higher training levels.
• Poorly numerate students were 7 times more likely to misunderstand risk (OR: 7.330; CI: 1.384-38.809).

Conclusions:

• A substantial proportion of medical trainees exhibit inadequate numeracy skills.
• Deficient numeracy is linked to a greater misunderstanding of risk, potentially impairing patient communication.
• This highlights a critical issue affecting patient safety and the quality of medical care.