ANOVA

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ANOVA (ANalysis Of VAriance) is a statistical technique commonly seen in radiology research.

ANOVA analyzes are conceptually similar to the student t-test, but involve comparison of multiple groups at once. The alternative to an ANOVA would be multiple head-to-head t-tests, but this would likely prove much more costly and time consuming, and the risk of encountering a type I error increases, the more studies are performed.

There are different types of ANOVA, useful in different situations

  • one-way ANOVA: testing to see if any group is different than the mean
  • factorial ANOVA: testing subgroups within groups to see if there are interactions between subgroups
  • repeated measures ANOVA: data is gathered on the same sample twice (e.g. before and after)
  • multivariate ANOVA (MANOVA): two or more dependent variables can be analyzed

ANOVAs are generally performed with the appropriate computer software.