Cardiovascular System course
Biostatistics
Lesson 1
Introduction to biostatistics: types and collection of data
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Learning Outcomes
• Define statistics.
• Provide examples of where statistical methods are applied.
• Sources of data.
• Define descriptive and inferential statistics.
• Provide definitions of some terminologies.
• Classification of variables as qualitative or quantitative.
• Define nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio levels of measurement
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What is Statistics?
Statistics consists of conducting studies to collect, organize, summarize
and analyze data and to draw conclusions.
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Statistics
• Statistical methods are used to obtain information from data.
• Data are found and collected from everywhere.
• Data collected need to be analyzed to get information from data.
• Statistical methods are used to create new understanding from a set
data.
• Statistical methods involves collecting, organizing, summarizing,
presenting, analyzing, and interpreting data for the purpose of
making more effective personal and professional decision.
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Fields of application of statistics
• Biostatistics
• Quantitative psychology
• Epidemiology
• Demography
• Business analytics
• Actuarial science
• Econometrics
• .…
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Biostatistics
When the data analyzed are derived from the biological science and
medicine, we use the term biostatistics to distinguish this particular
application of statistical tools and concepts
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Data
• Data is the raw material of statistics.
• Data results from the process of counting such as when a hospital
administrator counts the number of patients (counting)
• or from taking a measurement such as when a nurse weighs a patient
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Sources of Data
• To conduct the study data can be collected or obtained from different
sources:
1- Routinely kept records.
- Hospital medical records contain massive amounts of information on
patients.
- Hospital accounting records contain a wealth of data on the facility’s
business activities.
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Sources of Data
2- External sources
Data needed to conduct a certain may already exist in the form of
published reports, commercially available data banks, or the research
literature, i.e. someone else has already asked the same question.
3-Surveys
The source may be a survey, if the data needed is about answering certain
questions.
If the administrator of a clinic wishes to obtain information regarding the
satisfaction level of patient, then a survey may be conducted among
patients to obtain this information.
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Sources of Data
• 4- Experiments
If a doctor wishes to investigate the effectiveness of a new drug at
treating high blood pressures, she might conduct an experiment in
which the drug is tried with different patients and the blood pressures
are measured one month later.
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Terminologies
• Qualitative data: Data that are labels or names (nonnumeric).
• Quantitative data: Data that are numeric.
• Elements: The entities or individuals on which data are collected.
• Variable: A characteristic of interest for the elements.
• Observation: Set of measurements for a single element.
• Population: Collection of all elements of interest.
• Sample: Part of a population.
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Qualitative and Quantitative Variables
• Qualitative variable: A nonnumeric characteristic or attribute of an
individual or an object (gender, blood group, type of bacteria, name
of antibiotic, …).
• Quantitative variable: A numeric characteristic or attribute of an
individual or an object (age, temperature, height, …).
• Discrete variable: A quantitative variable whose values can be
counted (Number of decayed teeth, number of daily admissions to a
hospital due to Covid-19, …). The values of a discrete variable have
“gaps” between them.
• Continuous variable: A quantitative variable that can take on any
value from an interval (skull circumference, weight, height, ….).
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Types of statistics
• There are two types of statistics:
• Descriptive Statistics
• Inferential Statistics
• Descriptive Statistics is used to organize data into a meaningful form
so that it is easy to understand.
• Inferential Statistics is used to estimate a property of a population on
the basis of a sample.
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Descriptive statistics
• Descriptive Statistics involves methods of organizing, summarizing,
and presenting data in an informative manner.
• Descriptive statistical methods include both graphical and numerical
techniques.
• Descriptive statistical methods are applied to both population and
sample data.
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Inferential statistics
• Inferential statistical methods use sample data to infer or make
conclusions related to unknown population characteristics of
populations.
• Inference statistical methods use sample data to make estimation,
prediction, or decision about a population.
• Inferential statistics is used when the population under consideration
is large or difficult to study.
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Level of Measurements
• The four levels of measurement are:
• Nominal
• Ordinal
• Interval
• Ratio.
• Statistical analysis techniques that can be performed are determined
based on the type of the level of measurement.
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Nominal level of measurement
• Nominal level data represent labels or names and have no order.
• Nominal level data can be classified and counted.
• Examples: classifying medication( Pain relief, vitamin supplement,
antibiotic, …)
identifying patients according to their gender
Identifying the category of bacteria
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Ordinal level of measurement
• Ordinal level data are categories or classes, representing an attribute
or qualitative variable, that can be ordered or ranked.
• Examples:
level of pain ( No pain , mild pain, moderate, severe)
Level of satisfaction( very satisfied, satisfied, neutral, dissatisfied, very
dissatisfied)
student ratings of a course professors
preference ranking of several products.
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Interval level of measurement
• Interval level data are numerical values of a quantitative variable. The
distances between the values the variable can take are meaningful.
The values may have no natural zero point.
• Examples: Temperature scale, dress sizes, SAT score.
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Ratio level of measurement
• Ratio level data are numerical values of a quantitative variable. The
distances between the values the variable can take are meaningful
and the values have a natural zero point.
• Examples: Height, time students spend studying per week, weight.
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Example Data Set
Gender AGE CHOL BMI Smoking-Habit
Male 17 264 19.6 Moderate-Smoker
Male 32 181 23.8 Moderate-Smoker
Male 25 267 19.6 Moderate-Smoker
Male 55 384 29.1 Moderate-Smoker
Female 27 98 25.2 Non-Smoker
Female 29 62 21.4 Non-Smoker
Female 25 126 22.0 Non-Smoker
Female 12 89 27.5 Non-Smoker
Male 41 531 33.5 Heavy-Smoker
Female 32 130 20.6 Moderate-Smoker
Female 31 175 29.9 Moderate-Smoker
Female 19 44 17.7 Non-Smoker
Female 19 8 24.0 Non-Smoker
Female 23 112 28.9 Non-Smoker
Male 40 462 37.7 Heavy-Smoker
Female 23 62 18.3 Non-Smoker
Female 27 98 19.8 Non-Smoker
Female 45 447 29.8 Heavy-Smoker
Male 41 125 29.7 Non-Smoker
Female 56 318 31.7 Heavy-Smoker
Male 22 325 23.8 Heavy-Smoker
Male 57 600 44.9 Heavy-Smoker
Female 24 237 19.2 Moderate-Smoker
Female 37 173 28.7 Non-Smoker
Male 59 309 28.5 Moderate-Smoker
Female 40 94 19.3 Non-Smoker
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