The Assessment of Statistics Anxiety and Reporting Anxiety in EBM Learning

10.6145/jme.201203_16(1).0003

Chih-Lung Wu；Pei-Chun Chao；Long-Yau Lin；Fang-Yu Lin；Hui-Chin Chang

evidence-based medicine ； statistics anxiety ； reporting anxiety ； evidence-based medicine learning

Journal of Medical Education

16卷1期（2012 / 03 / 01）

22 - 29

英文

Introduction: Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) is hurtling towards a cornerstone in lifelong learning for healthcare personnel worldwide. This study aims to evaluate the related anxiety graduate students experience when learning EBM in English. Methods: The study group included 48 graduate students who had enrolled in the EBM course at Chung Shan Medical University. All participants had completed the basic EBM course in the previous semester. Student's t-test, Pearson correlation and multivariate regression, and interviews were used to evaluate students' anxiety in relation to the EBM course. The questionnaires used were the modified Statistic Anxiety Rating Scale-mSTARS and the Composition Anxiety Rating Scale-CARS. Results: There was a high incidence of severe anxiety, mostly related to statistical understanding and application. The suggested solutions to reduce anxiety were to reform the delivery of EBM courses and standardize EBM reporting. Conclusion: Statistics anxiety and reporting anxiety are major concerns in EBM learning that need to be resolved. The resolution lies in changing the style of teaching EBM especially in the areas of statistics and epidemiology by employing intuitiveness, creating a learner-friendly environment, and using a formatted system for EBM reporting.

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