Discuss what descriptive statistics were used well in the Coffman article
Descriptive statistics are is by researchers to describe, compare, and to characterize a relationship. (Polit, 2010) “Descriptive Statistics are used to present quantitative and qualitative descriptions in a manageable form” (Trochim, 2006). Coffman study on the the effects of tangible social support and depression on diabetes self efficacy in Hispanic older adults, demonstrated appropiate and good use of descriptive statistics in making the data collected more comprehensible .
Coffman used frequency with percentage to describe,qualitative variables which are categorical , characterized and attributable eg : ethnicity ,martial status, living arrangements and …show more content…
Without the appropriate unit documented, the reader would have a difficult time deciphering what units are used. I would not have the same information in the text of the article if it were adequately displayed in the tabular form .Also note that some of the data and units utilized in text were different from that displayed in the tables. In addition, I would have utilized the text only to document simple information like marital status and not place it on the table due space constraints leaving tables and figures for complex data (Polit, 2010). Also good researchers review data set and see what can be best presented in figures and tables then the text is written after (Hussain, 2012). In table for the depressed and non depressed represented in the table did not add up to the n115. In my text I would account for missing data, cover methods used to deal with missing data and amount of missing data (Thebane, & Akhtar-Danesh, 2008) . This will alert the reader that the results of the analysis may be biased …show more content…
Central tendencies: Mean (standard deviation) was reported appropriately for (quantitative) variables that are continuous data, meaning that these score could vary along a continuum.eg age, income status, and for discrete variables such as, health rating, diabetes self-efficacy, and diabetes tangible support. The discrete variable has to have a symmetric distribution in order to use mean. Coffman did not addresss skewness nor did she utilized variance in her text .However, “variable would be considered as skewed if the standard deviation is more than three times of its mean” (Hussain, 2012). With the data presented in the text the data appears skewed therefore , the median not the mean is better suited to describe the central tendency for discrete variables (Polit, 2010). The mean is needed to summarize that variable across all the participants and the standard deviation is necessary to understand how much each participant varies around the mean. .Table 4 in Coffman article shows the means and standard deviations used to compare depression vs non-depression in older Hispanic on the variables associated with diabetes self efficacy. In Table 2, Coffman utilized the mean (standard deviation) to describe the variables on the diabetes tangible support
Descriptive statistics are is by researchers to describe, compare, and to characterize a relationship. (Polit, 2010) “Descriptive Statistics are used to present quantitative and qualitative descriptions in a manageable form” (Trochim, 2006). Coffman study on the the effects of tangible social support and depression on diabetes self efficacy in Hispanic older adults, demonstrated appropiate and good use of descriptive statistics in making the data collected more comprehensible .
Coffman used frequency with percentage to describe,qualitative variables which are categorical , characterized and attributable eg : ethnicity ,martial status, living arrangements and …show more content…
Without the appropriate unit documented, the reader would have a difficult time deciphering what units are used. I would not have the same information in the text of the article if it were adequately displayed in the tabular form .Also note that some of the data and units utilized in text were different from that displayed in the tables. In addition, I would have utilized the text only to document simple information like marital status and not place it on the table due space constraints leaving tables and figures for complex data (Polit, 2010). Also good researchers review data set and see what can be best presented in figures and tables then the text is written after (Hussain, 2012). In table for the depressed and non depressed represented in the table did not add up to the n115. In my text I would account for missing data, cover methods used to deal with missing data and amount of missing data (Thebane, & Akhtar-Danesh, 2008) . This will alert the reader that the results of the analysis may be biased …show more content…
Central tendencies: Mean (standard deviation) was reported appropriately for (quantitative) variables that are continuous data, meaning that these score could vary along a continuum.eg age, income status, and for discrete variables such as, health rating, diabetes self-efficacy, and diabetes tangible support. The discrete variable has to have a symmetric distribution in order to use mean. Coffman did not addresss skewness nor did she utilized variance in her text .However, “variable would be considered as skewed if the standard deviation is more than three times of its mean” (Hussain, 2012). With the data presented in the text the data appears skewed therefore , the median not the mean is better suited to describe the central tendency for discrete variables (Polit, 2010). The mean is needed to summarize that variable across all the participants and the standard deviation is necessary to understand how much each participant varies around the mean. .Table 4 in Coffman article shows the means and standard deviations used to compare depression vs non-depression in older Hispanic on the variables associated with diabetes self efficacy. In Table 2, Coffman utilized the mean (standard deviation) to describe the variables on the diabetes tangible support