Research in physical medicine and rehabilitation. VIII. Preliminary data analysis

This paper describes important aspects of preliminary data analysis to be taken after data are checked for clerical entry errors and before the primary statistical analysis is performed. These include description and graphic display of each variable, recoding categorical data, transforming continuous data into another continuous variable and recoding continuous to categorical data. Missing values and outlying data points are identified and several techniques are recommended to minimize mistakes in variable recoding. Related variables measured with different units may be combined by using the z transformation and converted back to one of the original units for ease of interpretation. Finally, both categorical and continuous variables are checked for reliability by using kappa or the intraclass R.