When means and standard deviations are an incomplete summary of a continuous variable: problems, solutions, and utilising the reference ranges to check normality

• Green, D.J. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1934-6725
• Campbell, M.J. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3529-2739
• Koutoumanou, E. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0731-4243

© 2026. This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY- NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non- commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non- commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/ 4.0/.

• Submitted: 26 June 2025
• Accepted: 8 January 2026
• Published (online): 4 February 2026
• Published: February 2026