Determination of Difference Between Groups in Multivariate Analysis of Variance: an Application

Abstract

Objective: Although there is a healthy trend toward employment of multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) in the analysis of data from experiments which involve multiple dependent variables, there remains a need to demonstrate the wide variety of data analytic techniques available for post hoc analysis of statistically significant multivariate results. As a post-hoc test, using Stepdown Analysis after MANOVA was explained with application in this study, Material and Methods: In this study, the data set were used that contain 19 healthy (control group) pregnant, 21 pre-eclamptic pregnant and I I eclamptic pregnant, who submitted to Obstetric and Gynecologist Department of Research Hospital of Y.Y. University Medical School between 2004-2005 years. Urinary protein, systolic blood pressure, lactate dehydrogenase, alanine amino transferase, aspartat transaminase, malonyl dialdehyde and. platelets measurements were measured from pregnants. Results: It showed that urinary protein, systolic blood pressure and LDH were affected on groups' differences according to results of Stepdown analysis. Conclusion: Stepdown analysis, a test for the incremental discriminatory power of a dependent variable after the effects of other dependent variables has been taken into account. This analysis is similar to stepwise regression or discriminant analysis in that it relies on a specific order of entry to determine how much an additional dependent variable adds to the explanation of the differences between the groups in the MANOVA analysis. Because of this properties, Stepdown analysis is a suitable post-hoc tes for MANOVA.