Evaluation of the Levels of Evidence in Medical Articles in Korea

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the quality of medical research articles published in Korea. To evaluate the quality of medical research articles published in Korea, we compared levels of evidence in medical articles published in Korea and abroad. We chose 2 medical journals in Korea and abroad respectively which representing 15 clinical areas and reviewed all articles published in 1996 and 2008. We used the guidelines of Oxford Centre for Evidence-based Medicine (CEBM) for the quantitative evaluation and classified the levels of evidence in all articles. The majority of medical articles both in Korean and nonKorean medical journals were case-control study and next common were case studies. Whereas randomized controlled trials (RCTs), cohort studies, and systemic reviews were very rare. However, non-Korean articles had higher levels of evidence than did Korean ones, and this difference was statistically significant. In conclusion, although the quality of medical research articles in Korea improved, we were able to detect a gap in the levels of evidence contained in medical articles published in Korea and outside Korea.