An Application of the Runs Test to Test for Randomness of Observations Obtained from a Clinical Survey in an Ordered Population

Runs test is a statistical procedure which determines whether a sequence of data within a given distribution have been derived with a random process or not. It may be applied to test the randomness of data in a survey that collect data from an ordered population. This article illustrates on method to perform a runs test and explains the rationale for performing it by providing some examples of how this test can be applied. The aim of this article was to describe on ways to use the runs test in a clinical survey from an ordered population to determine the degree of randomness in the sequence of subjects who are recruited within a sample obtained from the whole population. Clinical survey that involves an ordered population usually collects data from subjects who have been recruited by a consecutive sampling method. Therefore, this study recommends that the degree of randomness in the sequence of selected variable(s) obtained from consecutive sampling is necessary to be tested from a pilot study to ensure random data collection in the study.