Experimental comparison of parametric versus nonparametric analyses of data from the cold pressor test.

ABSTRACT:

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Parametric statistical methods are common in human pain research. They require normally distributed data, but this assumption is rarely tested. The current study analyzes the appropriateness of parametric testing for outcomes from the cold pressor test (CPT), a common human experimental pain test. We systematically reviewed published CPT studies to quantify how often researchers test for normality and how often they use parametric versus nonparametric tests. We then measured the normality of CPT data from 7 independent small to medium cohorts and 1 study of >10,000 subjects. We then examined the ability of 2 common mathematical transformations to normalize our skewed data sets. Lastly, we performed Monte Carlo simulations on a representative data set to compare the stati

SUBMITTER: Treister R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4456202 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature