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French academic physicians had a poor knowledge of terms used in clinical epidemiology.

, , , , , and . Journal of clinical epidemiology, 59 (9): 1009-14 (September 2006)4094<m:linebreak></m:linebreak>LR: 20061115; PUBM: Print-Electronic; DEP: 20060711; JID: 8801383; 2005/09/06 received; 2006/03/14 revised; 2006/03/20 accepted; 2006/07/11 aheadofprint; ppublish;<m:linebreak></m:linebreak>Recursos/Organització; Necessitats.
DOI: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2006.03.005

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To assess academic physicians' understanding and usage of basic epidemiological terms commonly used in medical journals. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: Observational study. A total of 274 physicians, working in a teaching hospital in Paris, France were asked to answer a questionnaire including four vignettes presenting the results of a therapeutic, a diagnostic, a prognostic study and a meta-analysis of clinical trials. RESULTS: A total of 130 (47%) questionnaires were returned. We observed the highest proportion of good answers for questions about absolute risk reduction (87.7%), sensitivity (84.6%), and specificity (80%); and the lowest for the calculation and use of the likelihood ratio (16.9% and 9.2%, respectively). The global mean score was 5.0/10 (95% confidence interval=4.6-5.4, range 0-9.4). Physicians got higher scores for questions related to treatment than for questions related to diagnosis: mean scores 7.1 (6.6-7.6) vs. 4.2 (3.8-4.6). Regression analysis did not reveal any significant relationship between global performance and physicians' age (r2=0.002, not significant NS) CONCLUSION: Physicians demonstrated only moderate knowledge and usage of clinical epidemiology terms used in major medical journals. Their capacity to interpret quantitative data from medical scientific literature may be limited.

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