A Critical Appraisal of the Statistical Approaches Used in Within-Individual Observations in Hand Surgery.

ABSTRACT: Hand surgery studies often include data from multiple hands, digits, or joints from 1 individual without using appropriate statistical approaches to assess within-individual observations, allowing for potential bias regarding treatment effects. We critically appraised the statistical methods used among studies, including dependent observations in hand surgery literature. All publications from the year 2020 to 2022 were retrieved from PubMed for 5 hand surgery journals. Studies containing ≥5 participants who performed a hand intervention in the operating theater were included. The proportion of patients with nonindependent observations and the proportion of nonindependent observations were calculated. A total of 10 128 articles were screened, of which a total of 465 studies were identified.

SUBMITTER: ElAbd R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12313603 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature