Brief Papers
Acknowledged statistical help and a better use of p values: a proposal
E. Dincses1, G. Guzelant2, G. Hatemi3, N. Sut4, H. Yazici5
- Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Medical Faculty, Istanbul University Cerrahpasa, Istanbul, Turkey.
- Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Medical Faculty, Istanbul University Cerrahpasa, Istanbul, Turkey.
- Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Medical Faculty, Istanbul University Cerrahpasa, Istanbul, Turkey.
- Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, Trakya University School of Medicine, Edirne, Turkey.
- Internal Medicine, Rheumatology, Istanbul Academic Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey. hasan@yazici.net
CER11894
2019 Vol.37, N°5
PI 0855, PF 0857
Brief Papers
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PMID: 31376247 [PubMed]
Received: 11/11/2018
Accepted : 26/03/2019
In Press: 19/07/2019
Published: 29/08/2019
Abstract
OBJECTIVES:
The p-value is commonly misused. We hypothesised that a close cooperation with a statistician would go along with a more proper use of p-values. We considered a close cooperation present, when a statistician was a coauthor, or a formal statistical help was acknowledged in a study report.
METHODS:
Randomised controlled trials published in 2015-16 in 4 widely read rheumatology journals were searched for a close cooperation with a statistician, the inclusion of effect sizes, confidence intervals, exact rather than relative p-values and the omission of p-values in tables depicting trial entry data.
RESULTS:
There were only 28/133 (21%) articles in which a formal statistical help was acknowledged (Group I). The rest (Group II) gave no acknowledgement of a close cooperation. Reporting of effect sizes (96% vs. 71%) and exact p-values (88% vs. 69%) were more in Group I (p=0.01, and p=0.08, respectively).
CONCLUSIONS:
While a formal acknowledgement of a close cooperation was notably infrequent at 21%, this went along with improvement in some aspects of p-value reporting. If substantiated by further studies, we propose that a formally acknowledged statistical help should improve p-value reporting. Like all professionals, statisticians would like their name/office to be formally associated with their good work.
