Assessment of the use of statistical methods in health research

BACKGROUND: Computer use has lead to a great development of statistical methods. AIM: To assess the use of statistical methods in Chilean medical literature. METHODS: Two hundred sixty four papers appeared in Revista Medica de Chile and Revista Chilena de Pediatria between 1983 and 1993 were reviewed. RESULTS: Student's "t", Fisher's, and chi 2 test are the most frequently used statistical methods in 67% of papers. Correlation coefficients are used in 10% of papers. Multivariate methods are seldom used. CONCLUSIONS: Statistical analysis of papers published in Chilean medical journals is restricted to very few methods.