Review of the Statistical Methods Used in Original Articles Published in Iranian Journal of Public Health from 2015-2019: A Review Article

Background: Nowadays, statistical methods are used frequently in research articles. This review study aimed to determine the statistical methods used in original articles published in Iranian journal of public health (IJPH). Methods: Original articles in the period 2015 to 2019 from volumes 44 to 48 and numbers 1 to 12 were re-viewed by a 3-member committee consisting of a statistician and two health researchers. The statistical meth-ods, sample size, study design and population, type of used software were investigated. Multiple response analy-sis (MRA), Kruskal–Wallis test and Spearman correlation coefficient were used to data analysis. All analyzes were performed in SPSS21 software. Significant level was set at 0.05. Results: Statistical population in most of the articles were related to human samples at the field level (36% and 297 articles). 66.6% (549 articles) had the sample size less than 500 cases. Study design in most of them were analytical observational 56.2% (464 cases). Acceptance period was 115.5 ± 52.27 days. All the mentioned varia-bles had no significant relationship with the acceptance period (P>0.05). Both among the total tests and the articles, the highest rate of use of statistical methods was related to descriptive statistical method (34.4%, 75.8% and 532 articles), also, the highest use of tests was related to chi square test and t-test( (29%(450 articles)). Conclusion: Study design in most of the articles were analytical, to increase thematic diversity, accepting differ-ent articles seems necessary. The statistical tests, which used in most articles, were simple, so accepting articles with advanced statistical methods is recommended.