Knowledge in Statistic and Epidemiology Among Malaysian Postgraduate Students : Is it Difficult of Our Trainees To Perform On The Mock Critical Review Paper?
- Author:
Azlin Baharudin
;
Nik Ruzyanei Nik Jaafar
;
Hatta Sidi
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- Keywords:
Postgraduate psychiatry, critical review, epidemiology & statistics
- From:ASEAN Journal of Psychiatry
2009;10(1):19-31
- CountryMalaysia
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
Objective: Critical appraisal is a process of systematically examining research evidence to assess its validity, results and relevance before using it to form a decision. A basic knowledge in statistic and epidemiology is important among postgraduate students in psychiatry to acquire the skills for appraising clinical research evidence. This is a descriptive study that attempts to look into the level of knowledge among the postgraduate psychiatry students in terms of statistic and epidemiology. Methods: A total of 31 postgraduate students in their second (N= 26) and third year (N=5) Master of Medicine (Psychiatry) and Master of Psychological Medicine from three different universities, namely: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Malaya and Universiti Sains Malaysia participated in this research. The participants were asked to answer 7 questions within 30 minutes. The passing mark for this critical review paper is set at 25 out of 50. Results: Overall, only 32.3% passed the mock critical review paper. About 67.7% of the students passed their epidemiology component and only 19.4% passed the statistic component. Conclusion: We found poor performance in basic statistics among psychiatric trainees which highlights the need for further improvement in the subject’s training.
