Descriptive Statistics in Research Domains - Essay Example

In the simplest terms, the mean represents the average of a group of data and is the most widely used descriptive statistic since further statistical analysis tends to depend on the mean and its variance (Leedy & Ormrod, 2010).The research under analysis examined the medical home model for its robustness as a predictor of “decreased utilization of health services and increased patient satisfaction” (Cooley, McAllister, Sherrieb, & Kuhlthau, 2009). Data was collected through 43 differentiated care practices that were being implemented under 7 different medical home model regimes in 5 different states in the United States.

The overall sample set consisted of 42 children though most children were affected by more than one condition including chronic medical problems. The study is more exploratory than experimental since it seeks to establish the efficacy of an already implemented medical care system. The Medical Health Index (MHI) was utilized to measure the “medical homeness” of each medical home concept model (Cooley, McAllister, Sherrieb, & Kuhlthau, 2009). The research investigated various independent variables such as organizational capacity, condition management, care coordination etc.

in order to measure the MHI for each model. It was found that a higher MHI signified a more effective medical home concept model. Overall the study was easy to read and the assumptions were clearly spelt out to aid understanding.The mean is typically utilized in conjunction with the standard deviation to express the conformance of data to a centralized average. The internal validity of data can be established if the collected data tends to exhibit with a mean with a low standard deviation (Creswell, 2009).

The mean was employed throughout the research being analysed for describing the total outcome for various variables and correlation levels. The mean for a particular variable is calculated by using the overall sample set and calculating its average.