ABSTRACT
In clinical research one investigates a sample of individuals in order to use the information obtained to draw conclusions about a population of similar individuals. In statistics, the word ‘population’ refers to the group of individuals (which might comprise patients, objects, specimens or characteristics, etc.), in which one is interested. For example, the Mean Arterial Pressure (MAP) data tabulated in ‘Summarising data’ (p. 77) are from the population of ‘blood pressure readings of all day-case patients presenting for general anaesthesia’.
