Why and when do we need medical statistics?
BMJ 2002; 325 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/sbmj.0207227 (Published 01 July 2002) Cite this as: BMJ 2002;325:0207227
- Wai-Ching Leung, locum general practitioner1
- 1Norwich
Observations of medical students confirmed that “statistics is, above all, the subject most disliked by students.”1 An eminent medical statistician could only console himself that “medical students may not like statistics, but as doctors they will.”2 Why don't medical students think that statistics are as important as their teachers do?
Statistics might seem irrelevant, because you can usually understand simple situations without them. In your career as a doctor, the situations are more complex: statistics are essential. When are statistics useful, and what can they do for you?
Situations when you don't need statistics
Remember science experiments at secondary school? In physics, you investigated how various factors--the length of the string, the mass of the bob, and the amplitude--affected the period of a pendulum. It was enough to time the period of pendulums with different lengths of string, amplitudes, and masses and to compare the results. You did not need statistics.
In your most exciting chemistry lesson, you witnessed the vigorous reaction of an alkali metal--sodium or potassium--with water. This reaction can be demonstrated clearly, over and over again.
In biology, you found that various factors affect the rate of photosynthesis in plants. You simply compared the amount of oxygen produced by the same amount of plant under different conditions, changing only one factor at a time. You reached sensible conclusions without ever …
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