Fundamentals in Biostatistics for Research in Pediatric Dentistry: Part I – Basic Concepts

Abstract

The purpose of this report was to provide the reader with some basic concepts in order to better understand the significance and reliability of the results of any article on Pediatric Dentistry. Currently, Pediatric Dentists need the best evidence available in the literature on which to base their diagnoses and treatment decisions for the children's oral care. Basic understanding of Biostatistics plays an important role during the entire Evidence-Based Dentistry (EBD) process. This report describes Biostatistics fundamentals in order to introduce the basic concepts used in statistics, such as summary measures, estimation, hypothesis testing, effect size, level of significance, p value, confidence intervals, etc., which are available to Pediatric Dentists interested in reading or designing original clinical or epidemiological studies.

Effect of Lavender Oil on Anxiety Level in a Group of Egyptian Children

“…Data was explored for normality using Kolmogorov-Smirnov test of normality. The results of Kolmogorov-Smirnov test indicated that most of the data was normally distributed (parametric data), therefore independent t test was used for intergroup comparison, while intragroup comparison (before, after and within the same group) was performed using paired t-test (10,11) . The significance level was set at p≤0.05.…”

“…The significance level was set at p≤0.05. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS 19.0 (Statistical Package for Scientific Studies, SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) for Windows (10,11) .…”