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Assessing minimal medical statistical literacy using the Quick Risk Test: a prospective observational study in Germany
OBJECTIVES: To assess minimal medical statistical literacy in medical students and senior educators using the 10-item Quick Risk Test; to assess whether deficits in statistical literacy are stable or can be reduced by training. DESIGN: Prospective observational study on the students, observational s...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BMJ Publishing Group
2018
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6112405/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30139896 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-020847 |
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author | Jenny, Mirjam Annina Keller, Niklas Gigerenzer, Gerd |
author_facet | Jenny, Mirjam Annina Keller, Niklas Gigerenzer, Gerd |
author_sort | Jenny, Mirjam Annina |
collection | PubMed |
description | OBJECTIVES: To assess minimal medical statistical literacy in medical students and senior educators using the 10-item Quick Risk Test; to assess whether deficits in statistical literacy are stable or can be reduced by training. DESIGN: Prospective observational study on the students, observational study on the university lecturers. SETTING: Charité University Medicine medical curriculum for students and a continuing medical education (CME) course at a German University for senior educators. PARTICIPANTS: 169 students taking part in compulsory final-year curricular training in medical statistical literacy (63% female, median age 25 years). Sixteen professors of medicine and other senior educators attending a CME course on medical statistical literacy (44% female, age range=30–65 years). INTERVENTIONS: Students completed a 90 min training session in medical statistical literacy. No intervention for the senior educators. OUTCOME MEASURES: Primary outcome measure was the number of correct answers out of four multiple-choice alternatives per item on the Quick Risk Test. RESULTS: Final-year students answered on average half (median=50%) of the questions correctly while senior educators answered three-quarters correctly (median=75%). For comparison, chance performance is 25%. A 90 min training session for students increased the median percentage correct from 50% to 90%. 82% of participants improved their performance. CONCLUSIONS: Medical students and educators do not master all basic concepts in medical statistics. This can be quickly assessed with the Quick Risk Test. The fact that a 90 min training session on medical statistical literacy improves students’ understanding from 50% to 90% indicates that the problem is not a hard-wired inability to understand statistical concepts. This gap in physicians’ education has long-lasting effects; even senior medical educators could answer only 75% of the questions correctly on average. Hence, medical students and professionals should receive enhanced training in how to interpret risk-related medical statistics. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6112405 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-61124052018-08-30 Assessing minimal medical statistical literacy using the Quick Risk Test: a prospective observational study in Germany Jenny, Mirjam Annina Keller, Niklas Gigerenzer, Gerd BMJ Open Medical Education and Training OBJECTIVES: To assess minimal medical statistical literacy in medical students and senior educators using the 10-item Quick Risk Test; to assess whether deficits in statistical literacy are stable or can be reduced by training. DESIGN: Prospective observational study on the students, observational study on the university lecturers. SETTING: Charité University Medicine medical curriculum for students and a continuing medical education (CME) course at a German University for senior educators. PARTICIPANTS: 169 students taking part in compulsory final-year curricular training in medical statistical literacy (63% female, median age 25 years). Sixteen professors of medicine and other senior educators attending a CME course on medical statistical literacy (44% female, age range=30–65 years). INTERVENTIONS: Students completed a 90 min training session in medical statistical literacy. No intervention for the senior educators. OUTCOME MEASURES: Primary outcome measure was the number of correct answers out of four multiple-choice alternatives per item on the Quick Risk Test. RESULTS: Final-year students answered on average half (median=50%) of the questions correctly while senior educators answered three-quarters correctly (median=75%). For comparison, chance performance is 25%. A 90 min training session for students increased the median percentage correct from 50% to 90%. 82% of participants improved their performance. CONCLUSIONS: Medical students and educators do not master all basic concepts in medical statistics. This can be quickly assessed with the Quick Risk Test. The fact that a 90 min training session on medical statistical literacy improves students’ understanding from 50% to 90% indicates that the problem is not a hard-wired inability to understand statistical concepts. This gap in physicians’ education has long-lasting effects; even senior medical educators could answer only 75% of the questions correctly on average. Hence, medical students and professionals should receive enhanced training in how to interpret risk-related medical statistics. BMJ Publishing Group 2018-08-23 /pmc/articles/PMC6112405/ /pubmed/30139896 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-020847 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2018. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. |
spellingShingle | Medical Education and Training Jenny, Mirjam Annina Keller, Niklas Gigerenzer, Gerd Assessing minimal medical statistical literacy using the Quick Risk Test: a prospective observational study in Germany |
title | Assessing minimal medical statistical literacy using the Quick Risk Test: a prospective observational study in Germany |
title_full | Assessing minimal medical statistical literacy using the Quick Risk Test: a prospective observational study in Germany |
title_fullStr | Assessing minimal medical statistical literacy using the Quick Risk Test: a prospective observational study in Germany |
title_full_unstemmed | Assessing minimal medical statistical literacy using the Quick Risk Test: a prospective observational study in Germany |
title_short | Assessing minimal medical statistical literacy using the Quick Risk Test: a prospective observational study in Germany |
title_sort | assessing minimal medical statistical literacy using the quick risk test: a prospective observational study in germany |
topic | Medical Education and Training |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6112405/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30139896 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-020847 |
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