Universität zu Köln

Baethge, Christopher, Deckert, Markus and Stang, Andreas (2018). Tracing scientific reasoning in psychiatry: Reporting of statistical inference in abstracts of top journals 1975-2015. Int. J. Methods Psychiatr. Res., 27 (3). HOBOKEN: WILEY. ISSN 1557-0657

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Abstract

Objective: To analyze the reporting of statistical inference in psychiatry. Method: We searched 63,928 abstracts, published in 15 leading psychiatric journals (1975-2015). Results: Median abstract length increased from 664 (1975) to 1,323 (2015) characters, and median use of numbers from two to 14/abstract. A total of 3.6% of all abstracts exclusively contained significance terminology in a nonstatistical sense, and 45% showed some form of statistical inference, increasing from 26% to 52%. In those abstracts, statistical inference based on thresholds was dominant. Its proportion decreased from 99% to 66%, but with rising numbers of articles, figures rose from 1,095 to 2,382. Although reporting p values without thresholds did not appear 40 years ago and remains rare, combining precise p values with thresholds is now common. In 2010-2015, 86% of abstracts contained p values or p value thresholds, 22% confidence intervals, and 7% confidence intervals only. Results varied across journals. Conclusion: There is a moderate shift from reporting p values along set thresholds, such as p <= 0.05, to presenting precise p values and confidence intervals, but not as pronounced as in epidemiology and general medicine. The long debate on estimation over testing has not led to a substantial replacement of p values by confidence intervals. Null hypothesis testing (p <= .05) dominates statistical thinking.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Baethge, Christopher UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Deckert, Markus UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Stang, Andreas UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-175120
DOI:	10.1002/mpr.1735
Journal or Publication Title:	Int. J. Methods Psychiatr. Res.
Volume:	27
Number:	3
Date:	2018
Publisher:	WILEY
Place of Publication:	HOBOKEN
ISSN:	1557-0657
Language:	English
Faculty:	Unspecified
Divisions:	Unspecified
Subjects:	no entry
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language P-VALUES; DISORDERS Multiple languages Psychiatry Multiple languages
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/17512