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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to analyze the statistical errors of articles in the Journal of Korean Academy of Periodontology from 1973 to 1999. Of the 662 articles examined, 263 were included which analyzed the data. They were classified into 2 groups with time lapse; group 1: 1973~1989, group 2: 1990~1999.
Authors made checklists for analyzing the data and detecting the errors and analyzed them with professional statistician. The results were as follows:
1. Of 263 atricles which applied statistical method, 40(19.3%) was in group 1, 223(49.0%) in group2.
2. In the number of statistical method applied, 170(64.6%) were analyzed with 1 statistical method, 73(27.8%) with 2 methods, 18(6.8%) with 3 methods, and 2(0.8%) with 4 methods.
3. The number of statistical methods applied was 14, and they were applied in order of 119 of ANOVA, 72 of Student t-test, 63 of Paired t-test, 36 of CORRELATION, and 21 of Mann-Whitney U test.
4. In 87(33.1%) of 263 articles and in 18 error items, statistical errors were found out. In group I, 9 items (55%) of error were found out, and were in order of 5 of Student t-test instead of Paired t-test, and 4 of unnecessary statistical analysis. In group II, 16 items (29.1%) of error were found out, and were in order of 22 of Student t-test instead of Paired t-test, 7 of no multiple comparison test after ANOVA, 6 of Student t-test instead of ANOVA, 6 of unnecessary statistical analysis, and 5 of ANOVA instead of Paired t-test.
In conclusion, the results noted that statistical analyses were increased, but statistical errors were decreased with time. But authors suggest that researchers should refer to standard statistical texts and seek advice from professional statisticians to avoid the statistical errors.
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