From January 1983 to December 1992, There were 1441 papers in the Korean Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. Among these papers, 783(543%) were original article or clinical analysis and 652(45.2%) were case reports. A total of 319
papers
contained some statistical analysis.
In 150 cases(47.0%) of these 319 papers, the statistical description was insufficient. Of the correctly described papers, 115(68%) had more than one statistical error. Of course, in many cases the errors were not considered to be severe, but they
were
often sufficient to raise doubts about some inferences.
We suggest that authors should be more careful when they describe and apply statistical methods. If possible, authors should interpret results with statistical specialists. And we also suggest that our society have more extensive statistical
refereeing
system. This would at least prevent the worst errors from appearing in print. The last suggestion is elementary instruction in statistical methods during preclinical training. (Korean J Thoracic Cardiovas Surg 1994; 27:732-7)
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