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VARIABLES: Introduction

Collected information needs to be


summarized before it can be presented
and used.
Methods of summarizing data depend
on the type of data.
Types of data come from different types
of variables.
Variable -an observation that can take
different values for different objects.
Types of Variables
Variables can be classified broadly into
2 groups:
Qualitative/categorical.
Quantitative/numerical.
Qualitative variables:
do not take numerical values.
e.g. sex, type of health facility, marital status,
etc.
Types of Variables
Quantitative variables:
take numerical values.
e.g. age, no. of sexual partners, Hb, parity, etc.
Quantitative variables are of 2 types:
discrete -take whole numbers (e.g. parity,
no. of sexual partners, no. of AIDS cases,
etc.)
continuous -take any value within
meaningful extremes (e.g. birtweight, Hb,
BMI, etc.)
Levels of Measurement
Variables can be measured on different
scales/levels:
Nominal
Ordinal
Interval
Ratio
The four types or levels of
measurement have different degrees of
usefulness in statistical research
Levels of Measurement

Nominal
measurements have no meaningful rank
order among values; but
are used for identifying various
categories that make up a variable (e.g.
blood group: O, A, B, AB)
Levels of Measurement
Ordinal
used to reflect rank order among
categories (e.g. SES: 1=low;
2=medium; 3=high)
Note: number used for indication
of rank order only.
Levels of Measurement

Interval
numbers used are more meaningful.
arithmetic operations (+ and -)
can be performed (e.g. temperature
in C or in F)
zero point arbitrarily defined -0
degrees F does not signify an
absence of heat (i.e. no TRUE ZERO)
Levels of Measurement
Ratio: most sophisticated level.
has all characteristics of interval
scale, but has absolute zero
indicating an absence of the
measured quantity (e.g. weight,
no. of public health specialists in a
district, age, etc.).
can be converted to lower level,
e.g. to ordinal scale.
Data presentation
Tables
frequency tables (one-way table)
cross-tabulations (two-way table)
Diagrams
pie chart
bar chart
histogram/frequency polygon
line graph
scatter diagram
map
Frequency table: parity among
women attending ANC
Parity Frequency Relative
frequency (%)
0 4 3.1
1 27 21.0
2 27 21.0
3 20 15.6
4 16 12.5
5 17 13.4
6 12 9.5
7 2 1.6
8 1 0.8
9 2 1.6
Total 128 100
Cross-tabulation: HIV status
by oral contraceptive (OC)
HIV status

OC use +ve (%) -ve (%) Total (%)

Yes 188 (12.3) 1338 (87.7) 1526 (70.5)


(76.7) (68.7)

No 57 (8.9) 582 (91.1) 639 (29.5)


(23.3) (31.3)

Total 245 (11.3) 1920 (88.7) 2165 (100)


Pie Chart: health seeking
behaviour (n=400)

10%

28%

22% Self treatment


Trad healer
Nowhere
Hospital

40%
Bar Chart: mode of delivery
(n=600)

478
500
Number of births

400
300
200
100 65 57

0
Normal Forceps Caesarean
delivery section
Histogram: percentage of clinics
located some distance (in min)
from a referral hosp.
Frequency polygon
Frequency distribution curve
Line Graph: daily no. of malaria
patients at health facilities
Population of Tanzania by Year
of Census
Scatter plot: weight of 5-year
olds by annual family income
Map: IMR in selected regions of
TZ

135
105 70
130
160
130

100

140 160

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