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WILLIAM F. POWERS, MD, MPH
Department of Pediatrics St Francis Medical Center University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria Peoria, IL 61637

Am J Dis Child. 1985;139(10):962.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Sir.—In a recent issue of AJDC,¹ Brown commented on the inappropriateness of calculating the mean and SEM of ordinal data. To quote, "A precondition for the use of SEM is interval or ratio data."

This reader is disconcerted by how frequently the editors of AJDC allow this type of statistical blunder to appear on the pages of their journal. In the very issue containing Brown's article, the mean±SEM of Apgar scores are calculated and used to compare groups of babies.² This same error appears in subsequent AJDC articles in reference to Apgar^3,4 and risk⁵ scores. Perhaps the editors of AJDC should pay closer attention to Brown's article. . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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