Statistical Analysis in The New England Journal of Medicine

To the Editor: Emerson and Colditz studied how often various statistical techniques appear in Journal articles (Sept. 22 issue).* They suggest that this information “may be helpful to people designing and teaching courses in quantitative methods for medical students and other health professionals. …” I hope these will not be the only statistics we teach. If future investigators know only simple statistics, only simple research questions will be asked. Even a statistical sophisticate may find it difficult to publish articles in a journal for which the majority of the readers are not as knowledgeable. I was impressed with these issues.