Malawi medical journal : the journal of Medical Association of Malawi
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In conducting and reporting of medical research, there are some common pitfalls in using statistical methodology which may result in invalid inferences being made. This paper is aimed to highlight to inexperienced statisticians or non-statistician some of the common statistical pitfalls encountered when using statistics to interpret data in medical research. We also comment on good practices to avoid these pitfalls.
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We conducted an audit of paediatric trauma admissions to QECH, Blantyre, in September 2003. There were 107 trauma cases representing 8.8% of all paediatric admissions and mean age was 6 years. The commonest cause of trauma was falls (42.9%) followed by burns (31.8%) and road traffic accidents (14.9%). ⋯ Most (52.6%) children were brought into hospital within 24 hours of injury while 26.3% came in between 24 hours and 48 hours and 21.1% after 48 hours or more. Death occurred in 7.5% of cases. The mean number of days in hospital was 8.9 days.