In both clinical research and quality improvement, it is commonplace to compare groups of patients (eg, treatment versus control, pre versus post, hospital A versus hospital B) on a variety of characteristics. These characteristics usually take the form of (1) continuous data with comparisons made with t tests (for normal distributions) or Wilcoxon rank-sum tests (for nonnormal distributions) or (2) categorical data. Continuous data are data that can take almost any numeric value within a given range and can be subdivided into smaller and smaller increments without losing the meaning associated with the data. Examples of continuous data commonly found in health care include age, height, weight, temperature, or cost. Categorical data, as the name suggests, can be put into nonoverlapping categories, groups, or classes. Some examples of categorical data that frequently occur in health care are gender, disposition, and skill level (eg, RN, LPN, AHT). Antibiotic receipt, chest radiograph...
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June 2016
Special Articles|
June 01 2016
Basic Statistics for Comparing Categorical Data From 2 or More Groups
Matt Hall, PhD;
Children’s Hospital Association, Overland Park, Kansas
Address correspondence to Matt Hall, PhD, 6803 W. 64th St, Overland Park, KS 66202. E-mail: matt.hall@childrenshospitals.org
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Troy Richardson, PhD
Troy Richardson, PhD
Children’s Hospital Association, Overland Park, Kansas
Search for other works by this author on:
Address correspondence to Matt Hall, PhD, 6803 W. 64th St, Overland Park, KS 66202. E-mail: matt.hall@childrenshospitals.org
FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE: The authors have indicated they have no financial relationships relevant to this article to disclose.
Hosp Pediatr (2016) 6 (6): 383–385.
Citation
Matt Hall, Troy Richardson; Basic Statistics for Comparing Categorical Data From 2 or More Groups. Hosp Pediatr June 2016; 6 (6): 383–385. https://doi.org/10.1542/hpeds.2015-0273
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