Year : 2012 | Volume
: 3 | Issue : 3 | Page : 113--116
What to use to express the variability of data: Standard deviation or standard error of mean?
Mohini P Barde1, Prajakt J Barde2
1 Shrimohini Centre for Medical Writing and Biostatistics Pune, Maharashtra, India
2 Glenmark Pharmaceutical Ltd., Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Statistics plays a vital role in biomedical research. It helps present data precisely and draws the meaningful conclusions. While presenting data, one should be aware of using adequate statistical measures. In biomedical journals, Standard Error of Mean (SEM) and Standard Deviation (SD) are used interchangeably to express the variability; though they measure different parameters. SEM quantifies uncertainty in estimate of the mean whereas SD indicates dispersion of the data from mean. As readers are generally interested in knowing the variability within sample, descriptive data should be precisely summarized with SD. Use of SEM should be limited to compute CI which measures the precision of population estimate. Journals can avoid such errors by requiring authors to adhere to their guidelines.
Prajakt J Barde
Glenmark Pharmaceutical Ltd., Mumbai, Maharashtra
|How to cite this article:|
Barde MP, Barde PJ. What to use to express the variability of data: Standard deviation or standard error of mean?.Perspect Clin Res 2012;3:113-116
|How to cite this URL:|
Barde MP, Barde PJ. What to use to express the variability of data: Standard deviation or standard error of mean?. Perspect Clin Res [serial online] 2012 [cited 2019 Sep 17 ];3:113-116
Available from: http://www.picronline.org/article.asp?issn=2229-3485;year=2012;volume=3;issue=3;spage=113;epage=116;aulast=Barde;type=0