The purpose of data analysis is to reduce the data from unmanageable details to manageable summaries and transform the concrete data in ways that make possible concept formation and the construction of conceptualizations in various forms (Rubin & Babbie, 1997).
The study hypotheses were tested applying inferential statistics. Although other tests were used, the primary analytical method was One-way Anova. The method allows the writer to compare the mean scale scores of each of the three living will/health care proxy sub-groups: (1) those who had completed or planned to complete living wills and health care proxies within six months of the interviews (Group 1); (2) those who did not have the documents but said at the interviews it was possible that they might do so within six months of the interviews (Group 2); and (3) those who did not have the documents and had no plan to do so (Group 3). The scores of the independent variables were treated as interval level variables. The trichotomous dependent variable and interval level independent variables led to the choice of Anova as the primary statistical approach