"Trend" Statement Use in the Orthopaedic Literature.

Area of Science:

• Orthopaedic Research
• Biostatistics
• Scientific Communication

Background:

• Accurate data interpretation is crucial for clinical decision-making.
• P-values are valuable but have limitations.
• "Trend statements" for non-significant findings introduce subjectivity and risk undue conclusions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To audit the use of "trend statements" in orthopaedic research.
• To analyze the frequency and context of these statements for non-statistically significant results.

Main Methods:

• Audit of original research articles from January 2022 to December 2022.
• Inclusion of four high-impact orthopaedic journals.
• Analysis of "trend statements" and associated P-values for non-significant findings.

Main Results:

• 81 out of 1260 articles (6.4%) used "trend statements" for non-significant results.
• Only 2.5% of studies defined what constituted a "trend".
• In 28.8% of cases, the P-value associated with the trend was > 0.10.

Conclusions:

• "Trend statements" are moderately frequent in orthopaedic literature for non-significant findings.
• Mitigation of "trend statement" use is recommended due to potential misleading effects.
• If used, "trends" must be defined, lack of statistical significance acknowledged, and undue conclusions avoided.