Making Sense of Statistics for Family Practitioners "Setting the Table"

Abstract

After good quality data is collected either through a routine surveillance system, survey or clinical research it is important that this data is analysed and presented in a way that can lead to improved patient management or public health action. A table is simply a standard way of arranging a set of data into rows and columns and a good starting point for preparing powerful visual displays of data, such as graphs and charts, where some of the detail of the data may be losc lf the amount of data is small and relationships are simple, a table may be all that is needed. Therefore, in preparing tables, it is important to keep in mind thattheir primary purpose isto"communicate" information about the data and that, almost any quantitative information can be organised into tables.