Anesthesia Residents Have Limited Knowledge of Biostatistics

We surveyed 27 anesthesiology residents to determine their basic understanding ofbiostatistics. We wanted to see how well they could interpret statistical presentationin biomedical literature and assess research outcomes. The questionnaire includedthree 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 thecorrect 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 sincegraduation at the medical school, or country in which the participants had attendedmedical school (US or foreign schools). The only factor that increased the numberof correct answers signifi cantly was an additional course in biostatistics that twoparticipants had attended after graduation. Sixty six percent indicated they did notunderstand all of the statistics they encountered in journal articles, but all of theparticipants felt it was important to be able to understand the literature. We concludethat most residents in this study lack the knowledge in biostatistics needed tointerpret results in medical publications. Most participants in this survey expressedthe desire to improve their knowledge on this subject, even though it would requiretaking special courses in basic epidemiology, and statistics for the non-statisticianduring their residency training