Knowledge of statistical methods and their implications for clinical practice: a survey of paediatricians.

Improvements in computer software have contributed to an increase in the use of multivariate statistical analyses e.g. multipLe regression in recent times. Our aim was to assess the familiarity with, and understanding of these complex statistical methods among Irish paediatricians. Questionnaires were sent to all paediatric specialist registrars (SpRs) and consultants in the Republic of Ireland. The questionnaire detailed information about clinical practice, and contained a short quiz on statistical methods. 137 questionnaires were distributed, and 62 (45.6%) were returned. Eighty four percent of respondents aimed to read journals weekly but only 46.7% managed to. The commonest journals used were; Archives of Disease in Childhood (93%), Pediatrics (53%), British Medical Journal (46%) and Journal of Paediatrics (45%). 28 of 61 (45.9%) of respondents have had further training in statistics. Only 19% felt they had a clear understanding of regression. Fifty-eight of 62 respondents (93.5%) completed the short test. The average score was 5.1/10. Sixty seven percent of questions on basics were answered correctly, 37.9% of questions on application of tests were answered correctly and 25.8% of questions on regression were answered correctly. Only 3.4% answered all questions on regression correctly. The overall knowledge of advanced statistical methods was poor. There is a poor overall understanding of the concept of regression, despite its increasingly common use.