Biostatistical Analysis & Masterchart Blueprint
Official guidelines for clinical data coding, masterchart design, power calculation, normality testing, and reporting of statistical findings.
Interactive Academic Blueprint
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Clinical Data Spreadsheet Design
Organizing participant data in a database format suitable for direct import into SPSS, R, or SAS.
Key Guidelines & Components
- Use columns for variables (e.g., Age, Gender, SBP) and rows for individual study participants.
- Ensure the first row contains short, alphanumeric variable names without spaces (use underscores like 'patient_id', 'blood_urea').
- Anonymize data by removing direct patient identifiers (names, hospital registration numbers) and replacing them with serial IDs.
- Keep date formats uniform (e.g., YYYY-MM-DD) for duration or follow-up calculations.
Example
“Columns: patient_id | age | gender_code | sbp_mmHg | dbp_mmHg | outcome_code Row 1: 001 | 45 | 1 | 134 | 82 | 0 Row 2: 002 | 58 | 2 | 148 | 94 | 1”
TIPS
Avoid combining numbers and text in a single cell (e.g., write '134' instead of '134 mmHg') so statistical software can recognize it as numeric.
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