PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Mirjam Annina Jenny
AU  - Niklas Keller
AU  - Gerd Gigerenzer
TI  - Assessing minimal medical statistical literacy using the Quick Risk Test: a prospective observational study in Germany
AID  - 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-020847
DP  - 2018 Aug 01
TA  - BMJ Open
PG  - e020847
VI  - 8
IP  - 8
4099  - http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/8/8/e020847.short
4100  - http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/8/8/e020847.full
SO  - BMJ Open2018 Aug 01; 8
AB  - Objectives To assess minimal medical statistical literacy in medical students and senior educators using the 10-item Quick Risk Test; to assess whether deficits in statistical literacy are stable or can be reduced by training.Design Prospective observational study on the students, observational study on the university lecturers.Setting Charité University Medicine medical curriculum for students and a continuing medical education (CME) course at a German University for senior educators.Participants 169 students taking part in compulsory final-year curricular training in medical statistical literacy (63% female, median age 25 years). Sixteen professors of medicine and other senior educators attending a CME course on medical statistical literacy (44% female, age range=30–65 years).Interventions Students completed a 90 min training session in medical statistical literacy. No intervention for the senior educators.Outcome measures Primary outcome measure was the number of correct answers out of four multiple-choice alternatives per item on the Quick Risk Test.Results Final-year students answered on average half (median=50%) of the questions correctly while senior educators answered three-quarters correctly (median=75%). For comparison, chance performance is 25%. A 90 min training session for students increased the median percentage correct from 50% to 90%. 82% of participants improved their performance.Conclusions Medical students and educators do not master all basic concepts in medical statistics. This can be quickly assessed with the Quick Risk Test. The fact that a 90 min training session on medical statistical literacy improves students’ understanding from 50% to 90% indicates that the problem is not a hard-wired inability to understand statistical concepts. This gap in physicians’ education has long-lasting effects; even senior medical educators could answer only 75% of the questions correctly on average. Hence, medical students and professionals should receive enhanced training in how to interpret risk-related medical statistics.