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Choosing the appropriate measure of central tendency: mean, median, or mode?

Authors :
Khorana A
Pareek A
Ollivier M
Madjarova SJ
Kunze KN
Nwachukwu BU
Karlsson J
Marigi EM
Williams RJ 3rd
Source :
Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA [Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc] 2023 Jan; Vol. 31 (1), pp. 12-15. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Nov 02.
Publication Year :
2023

Abstract

Mean, median, and mode are among the most basic and consistently used measures of central tendency in statistical analysis and are crucial for simplifying data sets to a single value. However, there is a lack of understanding of when to use each metric and how various factors can impact these values. The aim of this article is to clarify some of the confusion related to each measure and explain how to select the appropriate metric for a given data set. The authors present this work as an educational resource, ensuring that these common statistical concepts are better understood throughout the Orthopedic research community.<br /> (© 2022. The Author(s) under exclusive licence to European Society of Sports Traumatology, Knee Surgery, Arthroscopy (ESSKA).)

Subjects

Subjects :
Humans
Research Design
Orthopedics

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
1433-7347
Volume :
31
Issue :
1
Database :
MEDLINE
Journal :
Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
36322179
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00167-022-07204-y