Anesthesia Residents Have Limited Knowledge of Biostatistics

Abstract

We surveyed 27 anesthesiology residents to determine their basic understanding of
biostatistics. We wanted to see how well they could interpret statistical presentation
in biomedical literature and assess research outcomes. The questionnaire included
three sections: demographics of the participants, their knowledge of statistics
(21 questions) and their attitude and self reported confi dence about biostatistics.
Recognition of a meta-analysis was the highest scoring question (85% gave the
correct answer), and recognition of a case-control study scored the lowest (22%).
There was no effect of gender, the year of study, the number of years elapsed since
graduation at the medical school, or country in which the participants had attended
medical school (US or foreign schools). The only factor that increased the number
of correct answers signifi cantly was an additional course in biostatistics that two
participants had attended after graduation. Sixty six percent indicated they did not
understand all of the statistics they encountered in journal articles, but all of the
participants felt it was important to be able to understand the literature. We conclude
that most residents in this study lack the knowledge in biostatistics needed to
interpret results in medical publications. Most participants in this survey expressed
the desire to improve their knowledge on this subject, even though it would require
taking special courses in basic epidemiology, and statistics for the non-statistician
during their residency training.