Hello everyone,
Is it scientific to categorize continuous score obtained after using the standard tool if the tool developer had not categorized it? For example, Visual Analogue Score (VAS) is a continuous score obtained after patient assessment and it ranges from "0-10". 0 is considered as no pain and 10 is considered as high pain but in the literature, we can find that the obtained final VAS is categorized into Mild, Moderate, and Severe pain on the basis of quartiles range (Q1, Q2, and Q3).
If it's not scientific what are the different possible ways to analyze these kinds of data further in the different models?
Yes: Of course; but remember - when it comes to other statistical treatments with such quartiles - that they are at the ordinal level, not at the interval.
As stated by Francisco it is often neccessary to categorise continuous variables and each study and set of data might require variations to where to cut the variable into categories. Quartiles ensure equal sized groups but there will often be other more valuable ways to categorise in order to use variables in various analyses.
Thank you Francisco Javier Gala and Kristian Svendsen .
Kristian Svendsen Could you please elaborate about those more valuable ways of categorization?
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