Example of tables with additional statistical summaries for Descriptive Statistics (Tables)

A medical researcher wants to study the effects of various factors on pulse rates. The researcher records the height, weight, gender, smoking preference, activity level, and resting pulse rate of 91 undergraduate students. The researcher then randomly divides the students into two groups. The first group runs in place for a minute while the other group stands still. Then, the researcher records the students' pulse rates again.

The researcher wants to summarize the heights and weights of the individuals in the study, classified by gender and activity level.

  1. Open the sample data, PulseRates.MTW.
  2. Choose Stat > Tables > Descriptive Statistics.
  3. In For rows, enter Gender.
  4. In For columns, enter Activity.
  5. Click Associated Variables, and enter Height and Weight. Under Display, select Means, Standard deviations, and N nonmissing.
  6. Click OK in each dialog box.

Interpret the results

Minitab displays the mean, standard deviation, and sample size of height and weight, classified by gender and activity. For example, there are 35 males in the study with moderate activity level. The mean weight of males with moderate activity is 158.1 lbs, and the standard deviation is 20.58 lbs. The column margins, under All, are the overall statistics for all the data. For example, the mean height of all the study subjects is 68.73 inches.

Note

By default, Minitab displays the text categories in alphabetical order. To change this order, you need to change the value order. For more information, go to Change the display order of text values in Minitab output.

Rows: Gender   Columns: Activity

A lotModerateSlightAll
         
F64.6065.6265.0065.40
  121.0124.5123.0123.8
  2.0742.7352.1602.563
  21.0212.787.7013.37
  526435
  526435
  526435
         
M71.1370.4372.4070.80
  155.5158.1170.0158.4
  2.6492.5212.5102.579
  13.2120.5819.6918.77
  1635556
  1635556
  1635556
         
All69.5768.3869.1168.73
  147.3143.8149.1145.1
  3.7733.5324.4853.679
  21.1224.2728.8023.87
  2161991
  2161991
  2161991
Cell Contents
      Height : Mean
      Weight : Mean
      Height : Standard deviation
      Weight : Standard deviation
      Height : Nonmissing
      Weight : Nonmissing
      Count