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- Title
Patients and medical statistics. Interest, confidence, and ability.
- Authors
Woloshin, Steven; Schwartz, Lisa M.; Welch, H. Gilbert
- Abstract
<bold>Background: </bold>People are increasingly presented with medical statistics. There are no existing measures to assess their level of interest or confidence in using medical statistics.<bold>Objective: </bold>To develop 2 new measures, the STAT-interest and STAT-confidence scales, and assess their reliability and validity.<bold>Design: </bold>Survey with retest after approximately 2 weeks.<bold>Subjects: </bold>Two hundred and twenty-four people were recruited from advertisements in local newspapers, an outpatient clinic waiting area, and a hospital open house.<bold>Measures: </bold>We developed and revised 5 items on interest in medical statistics and 3 on confidence understanding statistics.<bold>Results: </bold>Study participants were mostly college graduates (52%); 25% had a high school education or less. The mean age was 53 (range 20 to 84) years. Most paid attention to medical statistics (6% paid no attention). The mean (SD) STAT-interest score was 68 (17) and ranged from 15 to 100. Confidence in using statistics was also high: the mean (SD) STAT-confidence score was 65 (19) and ranged from 11 to 100. STAT-interest and STAT-confidence scores were moderately correlated (r=.36, P<.001). Both scales demonstrated good test-retest repeatability (r=.60, .62, respectively), internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha=0.70 and 0.78), and usability (individual item nonresponse ranged from 0% to 1.3%). Scale scores correlated only weakly with scores on a medical data interpretation test (r=.15 and .26, respectively).<bold>Conclusion: </bold>The STAT-interest and STAT-confidence scales are usable and reliable. Interest and confidence were only weakly related to the ability to actually use data.
- Subjects
MEDICAL statistics; PUBLIC health records; DECISION making; PATIENT education; PATIENTS; STATISTICS; COMPARATIVE studies; HEALTH attitudes; RESEARCH methodology; MEDICAL cooperation; RESEARCH; RESEARCH evaluation; RISK assessment; EVALUATION research
- Publication
JGIM: Journal of General Internal Medicine, 2005, Vol 20, Issue 11, p996
- ISSN
0884-8734
- Publication type
journal article
- DOI
10.1007/s11606-005-0245-7