PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Harbison, Lesley
AU  - Simmons, Kristen
TI  - Fundamentals of Descriptive Statistics
DP  - 2024 Oct 01
TA  - American Dental Hygienists' Association
PG  - 51--54
VI  - 98
IP  - 5
4099  - http://jdh.adha.org/content/98/5/51.short
4100  - http://jdh.adha.org/content/98/5/51.full
SO  - J Dent Hyg2024 Oct 01; 98
AB  - Descriptive statistics (DS) play a crucial role in establishing a solid foundation for study analysis and are important for understanding the results of a study or data set. If the data from DS is used incorrectly, the study may be misinterpreted. Descriptive statistics summarizes and organizes data, making analysis easier and providing an overview of the characteristics of sampled data. This analysis is comprised of measures of central tendency, which includes the mean, median, and mode of a particular data set. Understanding how to use each metric is essential for basic statistical analysis. The purpose of this short report is to review descriptive statistics and describe how to best utilize them during data analysis. The authors aim to provide this short report as an educational resource to assist the dental hygiene research community in understanding statistical analysis through descriptive statistics.