Dichotomisation of Continuous Data: Review of Methods, Advantages, and Disadvantages

Abstract

Background: In medical research, dichotomisation of continuous variables is a widespread use approach. However, it has been argued that dichotomisation might be waste of information. The aim of this paper is to review the main methods to dichotomise continuous data, to address practical issues around dichotomisation methods, and to investigate whether dichotomisation is always a bad idea.