Aims and objectives: To discuss the issues and processes relating to the selection of the most appropriate statistical test. A review of the basic research concepts together with a number of clinical scenarios is used to illustrate this.
Background: Quantitative nursing research generally features the use of empirical data which necessitates the selection of both descriptive and statistical tests. Different types of research questions can be answered by different types of research designs, which in turn need to be matched to a specific statistical test(s).
Design: Discursive paper.
Methods: This paper discusses the issues relating to the selection of the most appropriate statistical test and makes some recommendations as to how these might be dealt with.
Conclusion: When conducting empirical quantitative studies, a number of key issues need to be considered. Considerations for selecting the most appropriate statistical tests are discussed and flow charts provided to facilitate this process.
Relevance to clinical practice: When nursing clinicians and researchers conduct quantitative research studies, it is crucial that the most appropriate statistical test is selected to enable valid conclusions to be made.
Keywords: inferential; quantitative; selecting; statistical test.
© 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.