Descriptive analysis

[Ping Chun Cheng]

Hello, i am suppose to run a descriptive analysis on a varialbe called ' General health'. When i summarise and tabulate it i saw some data is called 'don't know, not applicable and don't want to answer'. What can i do about them? Also, for other datas how can i determine whether that certain part of the data needs to be remove and what value should i replace it with or its all just with '.'? which is no value

[Carlo Lazzaro]

Ping:
welcome to this forum.
Your first question is more substantive than statistical. Does the statistical analysis plan of your study include such levels fot the categorical variable -General health-? If the questionairre was administered directly to patients, it is hard to believe that they were not able to report their health state, unless they were so severely ill. Conversely, refusing to answer sound more plausible.

As far as your second question is concerned, without future data I'm not table to reply helpfully.