Hello,
I was wondering if someone could suggest the best statistical test for trends in Stata.
I'm analyzing proportion of patients on certain medications over 4 consecutive time periods. I'm also analyzing the rates of hospitalization over the same time period (continuous variable, since 1 patient can have more than 1 hospitalization).
For example,
% on med rate of hospitalization (/100 pts)
Year 1 21 5
Year 2 25 4
Year 3 29 8
Year 4 33 3
Even say a test for trend doesn't meet statistical significance for the % on the medication, the % on med in year 1 may be statistically different from Year 4 (and similarly for the rate of hospitalization between Year 3 and Year 4, but not overall trend for Years 1 - 4). How does one interpret these findings?
Is correlation analysis the best way to test the significance of the trend?
Thanks,
Ashwin
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