This text offers a practical method for developing tests, validating instruments, and reporting outcomes through the use of factor analysis. Ideal for graduate level nursing students, this book is also an invaluable resource for health care researchers.

Many health care practitioners and researchers are aware of the need to employ factor analysis in order to develop more sensitive instruments for data collection. Unfortunately, factor analysis is not a unidimensional approach that is easily understood by even the most experienced of researchers. Making Sense of Factor Analysis: The Use of Factor Analysis for Instrument Development in Health Care Research presents a straightforward explanation of the complex statistical procedures involved in factor analysis. Authors Marjorie A. Pett, Nancy M. Lackey, and John J. Sullivan provide a...

This book will help the reader select and interpret the most appropriate statistical tests to enable the effective assessment of a particular intervention. Beginning with a general overview of nonparametric statistics, Majorie A Pett reviews statistical hypothesis testing and the characteristics of data. She then explores goodness of fit tests, tests for two related samples, repeated measures for multiple time periods or matched conditions, tests for two independent samples, tests to assess differences among independent groups and tests for association between variables.