Materials and methods

Sadeghi Ramin, MDNuclear Medicine Research

Center,Mashhad University of Medical

Sciences

Materials and methods

This part explains what you did in your study

It should be clear enough to make other researchers able to replicate your study

Use the STARD and CONSORT checklists if relevant.

Location and time of the study

Usually the time and location of the study is mentioned in the materials and methods

It is specially important in epidemiological studies

Study population

Sampling Inclusion and exclusion criteria Local ethical committee approval Informed consent

Interventions

All interventions should be addressed fully in the materials and methods

Explain in detail randomization and blinding

Sometimes you can refer to another study for details of interventions

How you gathered the information

Mention the detailed information regarding the equipments, etc.

Mention the way you gathered the data Checklists Patients’ records

Follow up

The details of follow ups should be mentioned

Statistical analysis Achilles heel of the researchers Do not make a big deal of it Mention the way that data are to be

presented in the results Mean±SD

Mention the statistical tests Mention the software and its version

SPSS version 11.5 Mention the significance level

p values less than 0.05 were considered significant

Statistical tests Comparing continuous data between

two independent groups Independent sample t-test was used for

comparison of X between males and females.

Comparing continuous variables between several groups One way ANOVA was used for comparison of

X between groups. Mention the post-hoc test

Tukey’s honestly significant difference test was used for post-hoc analysis

Statistical tests For comparison between categorical

variables Chi-square or Fisher’s exact test were used for

categorical variables. For relation between two continuous

variables Correlation analysis (spearman or pearson

correlation coefficients) was used for evaluating any relationship between X and Y.

Linear regression was done for continuous variables.

Statistical tests

For more complex tests refer to this book SPSS survival manual

Group work

• Write down the variables of a hypothetical study design and prepare the statistical analysis part of the resulting manuscript.