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| Pch 594 Guidelines | Statistical Reporting 101 |
Purpose
The reason why I am writing this additional set of guidelines for
PCH 594 - Special Project Seminar II is because I have found,
over the years, that statistical reporting is one area that is not
done very well. This is also one area that I have spent the most
advisement time on. Therefore, my hope in writing these guidelines is to
help you better understand why statistical reporting is important, and why
it can and should be done well while you are in school and when you will be
working in the field of Public Health.
Of course, I cannot cover everything, but do provide enough detail so
that you can submit a presentable Section 4 for your final Special Project
Report. Basically, this documentation will deal with how to report data
collected with the use of surveys, telephone interviews and focus groups.
These are the most common methods used for the Special Project's data
collection activities.
Keep in mind that the Special Project Seminar II is a culminating
course in which you get to apply what you have learned in previous courses.
The courses pertinent to statistical reporting include: PCH 516 Public Health
Research, PCH 515 Biostatistics and PCH 551 Epidemiology.
Therefore, my assumption is that you have mastered the content for these
courses, and, PCH 594 - Special Project Seminar II is providing you with the
opportunity to apply the skills you have learned in those courses to a
real-life project -- developing a health education product for a sponsoring
agency. If anything sounds unfamiliar to you, then it is your responsibility
to become familiar with the material.
You are welcome to explore any number of textbooks I have reviewed in my
Annotated Bibliographies in the areas of
Biostatistics, Epidemiology, Public Health Practic, Research Practice &
Methodologies, and Statistics. If there are particular areas you feel you need guidance on,
please let me know and I will direct you to the most appropriate resources.
Introduction to Statistical Reporting
Since the development and refinement of your Product is dependent on
the data you collect to help you in the process, it is vital that you report
your data collection and analysis activities in an understandable manner.
Your readers should be able to decide for themselves if the data you have
collected were appropriate for the task. Since you developed your instruments
based on a review of the literature, and from conferring with
experts in the field of practice, this should not be an issue. However,
because this is an academic research exercise as well, then it
should also contribute to the field in a way that others can build upon. This
can only be done when what has already been done is documented in a professional
manner.
In essence, the purpose of reporting the results of your data collection
is to share your experiences and your findings so future researchers
can use them as resources for future research endeavors. You should always
provide the appropriate context with which your reader will need to truly
understand what your data collection and analysis were all about.
Briefly, your readers should only have to look at your appendices with
your data collection instruments and documentation, and the "Results" section
of your Report's Section 4 to know what you did. If you lost your readers
at this point you can forget about having them bother to read the rest
of the report you have slaved over during many sleepless weeks. In essence,
your statistical presentation has to be perfect for the serious reader
(like me).
The instruments and documentation should be self-explanatory so that any
data analyst, regardless of what statistical software s/he uses, would be able to
analyze the data and make statistical sense of the data. This should also
allow the data analyst to compare the results with those that were collected
by others with different populations, using the same instrument.
Reporting Basics
I would like for you to organize your statistical reporting,
as described below, to meet the critical eye of those who would be most interested in this kind
of information, namely, diehard research-oriented professionals (like me).
These people are usually the most meticulous about accuracy and elegant presentation of
data. Furthermore, not everyone processes this kind of information the same
way. Some people like narratives and others just like statistical tables so
they can make up their own minds about how they want to interpret the data.
Where Data Collection Documentation Go
All data collection instruments should be included in your final report's
Appendix. They should be organized sequentially, in the order you conducted
them. Include everything pertaining for a particular data collection
instrument into one appendix, as follows:
Where Statistical Tables Go
For each variable you collect, you should provide a brief descriptive
statistical summary. Your statistical tables should go into one of two places:
Keep in mind that each table should be self-explanatory, so
that if your paper were to fall apart and I picked up a page with a statistical
table on it, I would know what it was all about.
And don't forget to include all your tables in the LIST
OF TABLES that goes right after the TABLE OF CONTENTS.
What Your Narrative Should Say
Because the Special Project is a "Research and Development" course, and
your Report is really a research report, it should be written for the research audience -
scientific in approach, cognizant of the time constraints of professionals
who just want the facts, and are not necessarily interested in a lot of
narrative. Therefore, the narrative should not duplicate any data
already presented in tables, but should seek to provide context, supplement
and enlighten.
Your narrative should present a general overview of the results, without
repeating everything already presented in a table. You should talk about how
you used your findings to develop and modify your Product Prototype.
You should emphasize pertinent findings you want to call to the reader's
attention, which may not be that obvious when just viewing the statistical
tables. Section 4 should only report factually your findings and
how you used those findings. Your interpretations of the findings should
go into Section 5.
Pertinent findings include important and interesting findings. Important
findings include everything you used for modifying and refining your Product
Prototype. For example, you decided to use font size 16 because results from
the pre-development survey indicated the majority who responded to the
question on font size chosed "Font Size 16".
Interesting findings include surprising results (i.e., surveyed
males 15-19 liked hot pink for brochure background). Of course, you would
need to explain why (in Section 5, not in Section 4) you found this to be
interesting, and how it relates to the literature (Dr. X found females 15-19 years
of age favored hot pink, and males 15-19 years of age favored blue. This
unusual finding from your survey may be attributed to the fact that the males
you surveyed were urban graffiti artists who favor the use of blatant colors
to draw attention to the important societal messages they think everyone
should pay attention to.)
Remember, this document is meant to supplement Guidelines
for Writing Sections 4 & 5. Review that document for the "big picture."
| Pch 594 Guidelines | Statistical Reporting 101 |
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Published on the Net: January 17, 2001
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