Abstract
<p>It has been observed that medical students and researchers lack sufficient knowledge in understanding statistical concepts. This indicates the importance of improving the level of instruction in this field. This experimental study was conducted to introduce and investigate the effectiveness of some educational methods and tools in improving the level of understanding of biostatistics among medical students and paramedical postgraduate students. For this purpose, from 40 medical students and 20 paramedical postgraduate students, who attended the biostatistics course, pre-test and post-test questionnaires were collected. The medical students were divided into two training groups, namely, training with the help of software (intervention group), and the traditional (lecture method) group. The paramedical postgraduate students were also divided into two groups, except that for the intervention group, in addition to training with the help of software, educational DVDs were also provided. Knowledge, attitude and the awareness index of the students were determined by using a questionnaire. Post-test results indicate that, the awareness index in the intervention group was significantly higher than the control group (P&lt;0.05). The new method of teaching significantly upgraded the knowledge of the students (P&lt;0.05) and increased the level of attitude of the medical students (P&lt;0.04). Comparing the post-test results of the two groups, i.e., medical students and paramedical postgraduate students, demonstrated that a combination of software and instructional DVDs had a positive effect on the desired outcome (P&lt;0.01). Usage of statistical software and additional virtual methods will contribute to increasing the level of knowledge and attitude of the students toward biostatistics. The training method and, accordingly, the curricula of biostatistics courses in medical and paramedical schools must be revised.</p>
Highlights
With the scientific and policy perspectives of the future, a growing need of medical students and researchers in biostatistics is undeniable
The new method of teaching significantly upgraded the knowledge of the students (P
At the beginning of the semester, 2011-2012, 140 medical students and 52 paramedical postgraduate students were recruited to the study
Summary
With the scientific and policy perspectives of the future, a growing need of medical students and researchers in biostatistics is undeniable. Studies show that only 21 percent of physicians correctly understand the interpretation of data in articles (Ghajarzadeh, Abdollahzadeh, & Rafiei, 2011; Windish, Huot, & Green, 2007) These studies show that medical statistics is taught at all levels of education, its effectiveness is questionable. In a study aimed at evaluating the cognition, comprehension and application of biostatistics in research among postgraduate students in periodontics in India, Swetha et al found that 80% of students were aware of the importance of biostatistics in research, while only 3.0% were able to perform statistical analysis independently They concluded that the level of understanding and application is low, and further attention in this regard is required (Swetha et al, 2014). Since biostatistics is one of the subjects of medical and paramedical postgraduate courses, in this study both groups were considered for further investigation
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