Question

I will be conducting a literature review that aims to address the following question: "are there statistical differences in gut microbiota at the compositional and functional level between groups of healthy human adults in the United States, and adults with anxiety disorder?" I will be pulling data from papers (bacterial taxonomic classifications of gut microbiota in both groups, 'and classification on a functional level which will likely be measured by breaking up the metabolic roles these bacteria play into percentages). However, I am not sure what statistical analysis methods I should use (i.e. parametric vs. non-parametric, or ANOVA, t-test, etc). How would I statistically meausure differences between these two groups (gut microbiota of people with anxiety vs. microbiota of people without anxiety)?

Answer 1

In your case you have bacterial taxonomic classifications of gut microbiota in both groups, 'and classification on a functional level two levels of one independent variable

for two dependent variable gut microbiota of people with anxiety vs. microbiota of people without anxiety

Here, you have 1 independent variable and two dependent variable

In this case we use Factorial ANOVA to determines if the levels of independent variable affects the dependent variables

( here you can use factorial ANOVA )

In case you have more than one independent variable and two or more dependent variable you can use MANOVA