Basic, Intermediate, or Advanced? Levels and Accessibility of Statistical Techniques in Nursing Research Articles

Context: 

This study investigated the uses of statistical techniques in nursing research articles (RAs) published within 2016 - 2020.

Evidence Acquisition: 

Through stratified random sampling, 374 quantitative and mixed-method RAs were selected from five nursing journals (i.e., International Journal of Nursing Studies, Journal of Nursing Scholarship, Nurse Education Today, Nursing Outlook, and Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing) published within 2016 - 2020. The statistical techniques used in these articles were derived, aggregated, and listed.

 Descriptive statistics (20.59%) and multiple regression (15.74%) were the most frequent statistics used in the nursing RAs. Regarding the level of statistics, 49.83%, 17.00%, and 4.31% of the techniques were basic, intermediate, and advanced, respectively, indicating that basic statistical techniques are by far the most frequently used techniques in nursing RAs. The findings also revealed that students with basic and intermediate knowledge of statistics could understand 66.83% of the techniques used in nursing RAs.

 The classification of statistical techniques derived from RAs presented in this study can meet the needs of nurses who wish to understand the benefits of statistics in nursing practice and hopefully can encourage them to take this part of research and practice more seriously.