Comment on A Spreadsheet for Analysis of Straightforward Controlled Trials

SPORTSCIENCE sportsci.orgNews & Comment: Research Resources / Statistics Comment on A Spreadsheet for Analysis of Straightforward Controlled Trials Alan M Batterham Sportscience 7, sportsci.org/jour/03/amb.htm, 2003 (598 words) Department of Sport and Exercise Science, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, United Kingdom. Email. Reprint pdf · Reprint doc The accompanying article and spreadsheets represent an excellent learning, teaching, and research tool. The pertinent features from other spreadsheets on the newstats.org site are combined to good effect in the context of the analysis of randomized controlled trials and crossovers. The inserted comments feature in the spreadsheets is very helpful for students and researchers familiarizing themselves with the techniques, serving as a quick desktop reference without having to constantly go back to the associated article or other literature. All features of the spreadsheet are highly relevant to the proper analysis of randomized controlled trials. I particularly like the features relating to the analysis of transformed variables, plots of change scores, individual responses, comparison of pre-test values, and likelihoods for specified minimum clinically important differences. These issues are often neglected in the analysis of trials and the appropriate presentation of results. In particular… • Appropriate screening of data to determine whether a transformation is appropriate (and what type) is essential. ...