Understanding one-way ANOVA using conceptual figures.

Analysis of variance (ANOVA) is one of the most frequently used statistical methods in medical research. The need for ANOVA arises from the error of alpha level inflation, which increases Type 1 error probability (false positive) and is caused by multiple comparisons. ANOVA uses the statistic F, which is the ratio of between and within group variances. The main interest of analysis is focused on the differences of group means; however, ANOVA focuses on the difference of variances. The illustrated figures would serve as a suitable guide to understand how ANOVA determines the mean difference problems by using between and within group variance differences.