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Statistical problems in
medical research
UM Okeh
Department of Industrial Mathematics and Applied Statistics,
Ebonyi State University, Nigeria.
E-mail:
umokeh1@yahoo.com.
Tel: +2348034304278.
Accepted
27 October, 2008 |
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Many
medical specialties have reviewed the drawbacks of
statistical methods in medical diagnosis in specialized
areas in their journals. To my knowledge this has not been
done in general practice. Given the main role of a general
practitioner as a biostatistician, it would be of interest
to enumerate statistical problems in assessing methods of
medical diagnosis in general terms. In conducting and
reporting of medical research, there are some common
problems in using statistical methodology which may result
in invalid inferences being made. This paper is aimed to
highlight to inexperienced statisticians, medical
practitioners and personnel as well as other
non-statistician some of the common statistical problem
countered when using statistics to interpret data in medical
research. And also comments on good practices to avoid some
of these problems.
Key
words: Statistical methodology, medical research,
diagnostic test. |
