FREE NEJM E-TOC    HOME   |   SUBSCRIBE   |   CURRENT ISSUE   |   PAST ISSUES   |   COLLECTIONS   |   Search Term  Advanced Search

Sign in | Get NEJM's E-Mail Table of Contents — Free | Subscribe

Previous Volume 313:1629-1636 December 26, 1985 Number 26 Next

	Add to Personal Archive Add to Citation Manager Notify a Friend E-mail When Cited PubMed Citation

Abstract

This article discusses the method of fitting a straight line to data by linear regression and focuses on examples from 36 Original Articles published in the Journal in 1978 and 1979. Medical authors generally use linear regression to summarize the data (as in 12 of 36 articles in my survey) or to calculate the correlation between two variables (21 of 36 articles). Investigators need to become better acquainted with residual plots, which give insight into how well the fitted line models the data, and with confidence bounds for regression lines. Statistical computing packages enable investigators to use these techniques easily.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Greenfield, M. L. V. H., Kuhn, J. E., Wojtys, E. M. (1998). A Statistics Primer: Correlation and Regression Analysis. Am J Sports Med 26: 338-343 [Full Text]  
• Rose, B. S., Flatt, W. P., Martin, R. J., Lewis, R. D. (1998). Whole Body Composition of Rats Determined by Dual Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry Is Correlated with Chemical Analysis. J. Nutr. 128: 246-250 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Evidence-Based Medicine Working Group, , Guyatt, G., Cairns, J., Churchill, D., Cook, D., Haynes, B., Hirsh, J., Irvine, J., Levine, M., Levine, M., Nishikawa, J., Sackett, D., Brill-Edwards, P., Gerstein, H., Gibson, J., Jaeschke, R., Kerigan, A., Neville, A., Panju, A., Detsky, A., Enkin, M., Frid, P., Gerrity, M., Laupacis, A., Lawrence, V., Menard, J., Moyer, V., Mulrow, C., Links, P., Oxman, A., Sinclair, J., Tugwell, P. (1992). Evidence-Based Medicine: A New Approach to Teaching the Practice of Medicine. JAMA 268: 2420-2425 [Abstract]  
• Diamond, G. A. (1989). Through a Lens, Darkly. Med Decis Making 9: 253-256