ABSTRACT
Conducting research centers on (a) conceptualization, (b) design process, and (c) statistical inference. Once the design is completed, the study is performed, and the data are collected, entered into the database, and edited, the next step is data analysis, which yields the study results. The initial step in the analysis, also termed preanalysis screening, is to obtain the summary statistics with frequency distribution (number and percentage) for discrete data and mean and standard deviation for continuous data. Therefore, the type of distribution or measurement scale (continuous, discrete) determines the nature of the descriptive summary or statistics.
