Assessment of study design criteria of articles in the Annals of College of Medicine, Mosul 1990-2000

A Al-Neema, Bassam

	Assessment of study design criteria of articles in the Annals of College of Medicine, Mosul 1990-2000
IRAQI JOURNALOF COMMUNITY MEDICINE
Article 1, Volume 22, Issue 4, 2009, Pages 228-233
Author
Bassam A Al-Neema
Abstract
Background: The assessment of the methodology of the articles published in medical journals is crucially needed to improve their performance. Aim: The present investigation is done to assess the main study design methods followed in the articles published by the journal of the Annals of College of Medicine, Mosul in Iraq during the period 1990-2000. Materials and methods: A cross sectional study design was chosen to examine the study methods of 13 issues of the Annals which were containing 145 published articles. A modified selected tool for assessing published articles according to their research design include: study aims and objectives, methodology used, sample selection, methods of randomization and blind allocation, potential sources of bias and methods of data analyses. The researchers were categorized according to their departments, as clinical & basic sciences. Results: It was seen that 58.6 % of the researches chose case reports and case series, 15.2 % used clinical trials, 13.7 % used case control designs, and 9.7 % used cross sectional methods. Only one research used the cohort study methods (0.7 %). The present study showed that more than two thirds of all the clinical departments used the case reports and case series designs, and the clinical trials were used by 16.2 % of investigators in departments of Medicine and Surgery. Furthermore, 54.5 % of Anatomy, and 64.7 % of Biochemistry researchers used case reports and case series methods in their studies. Conclusion & Recommendations: Most of the case reports and case series design in the Annals of the College of Medicine in Mosul were significantly well defined according to the average criteria. While most of the case control and clinical trial articles were significantly written with ill defined criteria. This necessitates the need for more efforts to be directed to tackle all the required criteria in the design and analysis of these studies. Key words: Assessment, criteria, design, appraisal
Keywords
assessment; Criteria; design; appraisal

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