Leiby - NESUG

CONCLUSIONACKNOWLEDGMENTSWith the new tools provided in Versions 7 and 8 of the SASSystem, it is possible to produce a one-page summary ofpreliminary statistical analyses of continuous variables. This caninclude high-quality statistical plots, descriptive statistics, andresults from statistical tests. The %DESCRIBE macro can dothese things easily, allowing the user to analyze numerouscontinuous variables grouped by one variable and stratified byanother with one macro call. The output can be presentedwithout embarrassment and with little confusion to nonstatisticianinvestigators.Many thanks to Dr. David Mauger, Assistant Professor ofBiostatistics in the Department of Health Evaluation Sciences,for providing the idea for this macro and to Linda Engle and AmyMatthews, Statistical Analysts in the Department of HealthEvaluation Sciences, for assisting in macro testing. Specialthanks to Dr. Duanping Liao, Assistant Professor ofEpidemiology, for providing the data and data description for theexamples.CONTACT INFORMATIONREFERENCESARIC investigators. “The atherosclerosis risk in the communities(ARIC) study: Design and objectives.” American Journal ofEpidemiology, 1989; 129:687-702Curtis, Nathan A. “Are Histograms Giving You Fits? New SASSoftware for Analyzing Distributions.”www.sas.com/rnd/app/papers/distributionanalysis.pdfWatts, Perry. “Managing SAS/GRAPH Displays with theGREPLAY Procedure.” Proceedings of the NorthEast SAS UsersGroup, Inc. 11 th Annual Conference, 439-445.Your comments and questions are valued and encouraged.Send feedback and requests for the macro code to:Benjamin E. LeibyThe Pennsylvania State UniversityCollege of MedicineDepartment of Health Evaluation Sciences, A210P.O. Box 855Hershey, PA 17033-0855Work Phone: 717.531.7178Fax: 717.531.5779Email: bleiby@hes.hmc.psu.eduSAS, SAS/STAT, and SAS/GRAPH are registered trademarksof SAS Institute, Inc. in the USA and in other countries. ®indicates USA registration.