The Mean: Simply Average?

< Back to search results

• Format Texts
• Language/s English
• Target Audience Further education
• EBM Stage 3 - Appraising evidence
• Duration <5 mins
• Difficulty Introductory

Key Concepts addressed

• 2-3c Average measures of effects can be misleading

Details

This blog explains what is meant by ‘the mean’, as a measure of average, and how it can be calculated (by taking the sum of the values of the entries divided by the count of these entries). The blog distinguishes the mean from the median and explains that the mean will not always represent a whole number (e.g. it is not possible to have 1.86 children, despite this being a household average). The blog also highlights caveats of the mean (e.g. that the mean can be distorted by extreme values and thus may not always be the most representative measure of data). Read the blog

Students 4 Best Evidence (S4BE) is a growing network of students from around the world, from school age to university, who are interested in learning more about evidence-based healthcare (EBH).  The network is supported by the UK Cochrane Centre.  In addition to the website, the S4BE has a Facebook group and Twitter feed. For more information, read Selena Ryan-Vigs blog which introduces Students 4 Best Evidence.