What type of inferential statistics are nurses and midwives applying to research data?

Helen Evelyn Malone

School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin

Dr. Helen Evelyn Malone, PhD, MSc, RNT, SCM, SRN holds the post of Visiting Research Fellow with the School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin. She was awarded a PhD and MSc, from Trinity College Dublin, and a Nurse Tutor Diploma from UCD. Helen is a State Registered General Nurse, State Certified Midwife and is registered on three divisions with An Bord Altranais agus Cnáimhseachais na héireann: Tutors, General and Midwives divisions. Current research project: Helen is lead author on a Cochrane Systematic review on the Cochrane registered title "Interventions for promoting participation in shared decision-making for children with cystic fibrosis". Helen is published as lead author in Journal of Advanced Nursing, British Journal of Nursing, Nurse Researcher, Irish Journal of Medical Science and is reviewer for two journals.

Imelda Coyne

School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin

Professor Imelda Coyne PhD, RGN, RSCN, FEANS is Professor of Children & Young People’s Nursing at the School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin. Imelda’s research interests include: children and adolescents’ participation in consultations and shared decision-making, triadic decision-making, interventions to promote shared-decision making, child and family centered care, chronic illness management, transition from child to adult healthcare services, cancer research, technological solution to information-exchange, and health service evaluation. Imelda has published more than 100 peer reviewed articles, and is a reviewer for 22 peer-reviewed medical, nursing and psychology journals. Imelda is a reviewer and supervisor for Cochrane systematic reviews, and is co-author of two nursing textbooks.

Abstract

Aim of Review: The identification of the type and frequency of inferential (not descriptive) statistical tests reported by nursing and midwifery researchers in the Journal of Advanced Nursing 2015 and contrasted with the findings of a similar descriptive review reported in 1996 by a different author.

Search and review methodology: Journal of Advanced Nursing research articles for the months of June to November 2015 were examined for the type and frequency of inferential statistical tests commonly applied to quantitative data.

Findings: Forty-six articles, from a total of 108 scrutinised research articles met the inclusion criteria. Some key findings are evident when the findings from the two time-points 1996 and 2015 are contrasted. The non-parametric Chi-square statistic continues to rank number one as the most frequently applied inferential statistic. It has also increased in its frequency of usage from 14(31%) in the previous review (45 articles) to 25(54%) in this review (46 articles). The parametric Independent Student’s t-test was the second most commonly applied inferential statistic. This Independent t-test, a previously infrequently reported statistic in this journal 6(13%) has increased in usage to 18(39%). In contrast, the Paired t-test continues to be infrequently applied, 2(4%) in the earlier review and 5(11%) in the later review. Between the two time-points 1996 and 2015, the use of Correlation and Regression plus (ANOVA) continue to feature considerably. Researchers publishing in this journal are applying a diversity of statistical techniques to their data.

Conclusions and Implications: Approximately a third of the articles reported the use of both a Chi-square and an Independent t-test, indicating that researchers publishing their results in this journal are statistically addressing both categorical and scale components in their research data. The findings from this review provide a baseline for comparison with the findings from future similar reviews. These findings also provide nursing and midwifery researchers, educators and potential authors of health statistics textbooks with an overview of inferential statistical techniques that are commonly applied in contemporaneous research reporting.

Authors

Helen Evelyn Malone (School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin)
Imelda Coyne (School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin)

Topic Area

Topics: Innovations in research methodology, education or clinical practice

Session

RS » Research (14:00 - Thursday, 10th November, Seminar Room 2.51)

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