Early warning scoring systems versus standard observations charts for wards in South Africa: a cluster randomized controlled trial

Table 3 Number of abnormal vital signs recorded per patient (intention-to-treat analysis)

Number of abnormal vital signs	Intervention arm	%	Control arm	%
Number of abnormal vital signs	n	%	n	%
0	9	15.79	12	21.05
1	19	33.33	26	45.61
2	17^a	29.82	13	22.81
3	10	17.54	6	10.53
4	2	3.51	0
Total	57	100	57	100

^aTwo patients died.
No significant differences identified, df = 4, χ² 5.05, P = 0.28. df, the degrees of freedom, or the number of ‘entities’ that are free to vary when a statistical test is applied; this also determines the probability distribution used for the test statistic.

ISSN: 1745-6215