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[Profile of biostatistics utilization in three medical reviews. Implications for medical education]
R J Gagnon1, R Marchand, M Marcil
1l'Unité de médecine familiale du Centre hospitalier de Verdun.
Objective:
To identify the most commonly used biostatistical concepts and tests in three journals read by family physicians.
Design:
Descriptive study of the biostatistical content of 12 issues of the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ), Canadian Family Physician (CFP), and the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
Main Outcome Measures:
Frequency of citations of concepts and tests, and Spearman's correlation coefficients comparing the biostatistical profiles of the three journals.
Results:
Biostatistical content of NEJM was diverse (on average, 39 concepts and 21 tests per issue). In CFP, we found 10 concepts and four tests per issue. In CMAJ, there were, on average, nine concepts and five tests per issue.
Conclusions:
The journals' profiles (order of importance of concepts and tests) were fairly similar.