Quantitative data analyses

When considering quantitative analysis in health research, there are a number of key, fundamental initial aspects that need to be considered. Therefore, this chapter describes the importance of study design, development of your hypotheses, the nature of the data to be collected and the initial summaries, the need and importance of basic descriptive statistical analyses. These are vital components as they help you, as a researcher, to determine the most appropriate statistical test for any follow-up statistical analyses. It is also important to understand the limitations of hypothesis testing and how the importance of research findings can be presented or interpreted in different ways. In addition to traditional, systematic (difference) tests, other contemporary approaches to data evaluation, including understanding the concept of effect sizes in evaluating meaningful differences, as well as combining research findings in the form of a meta-analysis to produce an overall interpretation of the current research findings, are covered.