Pedscapes

Indian Pediatrics 2002; 39:608

Statistical analysis made easy

A listing of various statistical analysis software available for download from the Internet are given below. Most of the statistical analysis software are shareware, demo or trial versions, implying that after a month they need to be purchased. Hence, it may be possible to access the complete features only for about a month after which some features may be deactivated.

Epi Info - www.cdc.gov/ Though this has been mentioned previously in pedscapes, any listing of statistical packages is not complete without Epi Info. The two latest versions available presently are Epi Info 6.04 and Epi Info 2000. While Epi info 6.04 is Dos based, and permits designing of questionnaires and complete statistical analysis, Epi Info 2000 is windows based and has in addition the NutStat, a nutrition anthropometry program.

Statcalc - www.actastat.com. StatCalc allows various descriptive statistics, t-tests, ANOVA, z-tests, chi-square, correlation, and bivariate regression and sample size estimation. A Stat Tutor, which teaches the use of StatCalc modules and also basic statistics, is an interesting feature. This is a shareware and needs to be purchased after a trial period.

Analyse-It for Excel: www.analyse-it.com. Analyse-it is an add on to the popular MS-Excel. Analyse-It loads with Excel and performs various statistical tests including parametric and non-parametric procedures, descriptive statistics, testing normality, comparing groups, correlation, and regression. Using the software has been made easy by the provision of tutorials. Data entry through MS Excel is a useful and user-friendly feature of this package.

DBstat - www.dbstat.com. Certain features like the help menu and the print command of the trial version of DBstat have been disabled. However, despite these shortcomings, use for an unlimited period has been permitted. Data entry is in Excel format and hence convenient. The full version needs to be purchased.

Minitab - www.minitab.com. Minitab Statistical Software permits various basic and advanced statistical analysis and generation of graphs. The demo version is available for download from their website.

Graphpad - www.graphpad.com. This software is useful for those with an ‘always on’ Internet access through cable, DSL or satellite. The data entry has to be done online through their website and immediate analysis is possible. The version available for download permits free use for one month only.

Statistix - www.statistix.com. Statistix is convenient to use with data entry made in the excel format. Most statistical tests can be carried out using this package. This is a trial version and the complete features can be used free of charge for a month .This package is popular with medical researchers for their analysis.

DataXplorer Analysis Software - www.somat.com DataXplorer is a free data analysis software package. It permits easy statistical analysis and graph generation.

Visualstat - www.visualstats.org. Visualstat permits the full complement of statistical analysis and generation of graphs. However, the help menu is inadequate and the software is not very user friendly. The positive feature of this software is that it is a freeware.

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