Basic aspects of data analysis and teaching in medical scientific research / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Statistical analysis includes statistical description and inference. The former one describes central and dispersion tendency,sampling error and characteristics of data distribution.The key of statistical description is how to properly select the relevant statistic which primarily depends on three elementscharacteristics of sample,type of data and its characteristics of distribution.Secondly,we should pay attention to correct matching and combination use of statistics. Statistical inference includes parameter estimation and hypothesis testing. We usually use interval estimation to do parameter estimation.The correct selection of the methods of hypothesis testing needs the following six factors,research purpose,number of research factors,number of groups or research level,types of experiment design,data types and distribution characteristics,and the sample size.