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Read
about using research to raise
patient care to new
heights. Overview of Chapter 13:
Analyzing Quantitative Data Chapter 13 introduces you to
some basic principles of quantitative analysis. The
purpose is to help you understand how and why
certain statistical procedures are used so that you
can begin to interpret statistics that are used in
research reports. You are not expected to be able
to calculate statistics. The chapter begins with a
description of the four levels of measurement,
followed by a discussion of elementary descriptive
statistics. The chapter covers the three basic
types of univariate descriptive statistics:
description of the shape of a distribution, central
tendency, and variability. Methods of bivariate
statistics are presented. The next major section
discuses the principles underlying tests of
statistical significance. The aim is to show you
why inferential statistics are needed to
draw conclusions about research data. As in the
previous section, the discussion focuses on the
logic, use and interpretation of various statistics
rather than on calculations. In fact, in this
chapter you won't see any computations, formulas,
or Greek symbols! The bivariate tests described in
the chapter include t-tests, analysis of
variance, chi-squared tests, and product-moment
correlation coefficients. The chapter also presents
some preliminary information about multivariate
statistical procedures. Increasing numbers of nurse
researchers are using sophisticated multivariate
statistical procedures to analyze their data. You
will likely be faced with reading studies in which
such procedures are used. This chapter shows you
some of these procedures and illustrates how and
when they are used. The procedures include multiple
regression and analysis of covariance, with brief
mention of factor analysis, discriminant function
analysis, multivariate ANOVA, logistic regression,
and causal modeling. The chapter concludes with
some tips on how to read and evaluate the results
section of a quantitative research
report. Study
Chapter 13 in the
text, pages 327-378. Use the forum
for Questions for Instructor on Part 5 in
WebCT for Nurs
400A
or Nurs
400B
to post questions about things you don't understand
in Chapter 13.
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