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Types of Variables in Epidemiologic Studies

The document discusses the importance of statistics in medical research, outlining the need to collect and analyze data effectively. It categorizes variables into qualitative (categorical) and quantitative (numerical) types, providing examples for each. Additionally, it explains various methods for graphically displaying data to convey information clearly.

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keroadel512
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11 views33 pages

Types of Variables in Epidemiologic Studies

The document discusses the importance of statistics in medical research, outlining the need to collect and analyze data effectively. It categorizes variables into qualitative (categorical) and quantitative (numerical) types, providing examples for each. Additionally, it explains various methods for graphically displaying data to convey information clearly.

Uploaded by

keroadel512
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Types of variables in epidemiologic

studies
Dr/Doaa Mohamed Mahmoud
Assistant professor of Public Health and
Community Medicine
ILOS
By the end of this session the student will be
able to:
 Define statistics and need to use it in medical research.

 Identify types of variables and give examples of each of


them.
Statistics (Why we need statistics?)
 The purpose of most studies is to collect data
to obtain information about a particular area of
research.

 Our aim is to condense these data in a meaningful


way and extract useful information from them.
Statistics (Why we need statistics?)
Statistics encompasses the methods of collecting,
summarizing, analyzing and drawing conclusions from the
data.

Statistics includes:
1. Descriptive statistics:
➢ Describing data
➢ Summarizing data

2. Statistical inference:
Drawing conclusions that can be applied to other cases
Types of data
Our data are usually obtained from a sample of
individuals which represents the population of
interest.

 Types of data
➢ Constant data
➢ Variables
Types of variables
There are two types:
 Qualitative (Categorical data)
 Quantitative (Numerical data)
Categorical (qualitative) data
These occur when each individual can only belong to
one of a number of distinct categories of the variable.
1. Nominal data
The categories are not ordered but simply have names.

Examples:
 Blood group (A, B, AB, & O)
 Marital status (married/widowed single etc.)
 Gender (male or female)
Categorical (qualitative) data continued
2. Ordinal data
The categories are ordered in some way.

Examples:
 Disease staging systems (advanced, moderate,
mild, none)
 Degree of pain (severe, moderate, mild, none).
Categorical (qualitative) data continued
A categorical variable is binary or dichotomous
when there are only two possible categories.

Examples:
 Yes/ No
 Dead/ Alive
 Patient has disease/ patient does not have disease
Numerical (quantitative) data
• These occur when the variable takes some numerical
value
 It is subdivided into two types:

o Discrete data
o Continuous data
Numerical (quantitative) data continued
1. Discrete data
Occur when the variable can only take certain whole
numerical values.
Examples:
These are often counts of numbers of events, such as the
number of visits to a GP in a year or the number of
episodes of illness in an individual over the last five years.
Numerical (quantitative) data continued
2. Continuous data
Takes any value in a range of values.

Examples:
 Weight
 Height
Types of
Variables

Categorical Numerical

Nominal Continuous

Ordinal Discrete
Examples of categorical variables

Variable Categories Type of variable


Sex Male, Female Nominal/ Binary
Culture result Negative, Positive Binary
Alive at 6 months Yes, No Binary
Examples of numerical variables

▪ Weight (Continuous)
▪ Height (Continuous)
▪ Hb in gm/dl (Continuous)
▪ Income (Continuous)
▪ Length of hospital stay in days (Discrete)
▪ Number of children in a family (Discrete)
Displaying data graphically
Why we graphically present data?
Diagrams are often powerful tools for conveying
information about the data, for providing
simple summary pictures, and for spotting
outliers and trends before any formal analyses
are performed.
Displaying frequency distributions
 Once the frequencies (or relative frequencies) have been
obtained for categorical or some discrete numerical data,
these can be displayed visually.
1. Bar (column chart)
 Bar or column chart-a separate horizontal or vertical
bar is drawn for each category, its length being
proportional to the frequency of event in that category.

 The bars are separated by small gaps to indicate that the


data are categorical or discrete.

 Bar chart can be presented either horizontal or vertical.


1. Bar (column chart) continued
2. Pie chart
 Pie chart a circular 'pie' is split into sections, one for
each category, so that the area of each section is
proportional to the frequency in that category

 It is often more difficult to display continuous numerical


data, as the data may need to be summarized before being
drawn.
2. Pie chart continued
3. Histogram
 Histogram is similar to a bar chart, but there should be no
gaps between the bars as the data are continuous.
 The width of each bar of the histogram relates to a range of
values for the variable.
 The area of the bar is proportional to the frequency in that
range.
 The histogram should be labeled carefully, to make it clear
where the boundaries lie.
3. Histogram continued
4. Frequency polygons
It is like histogram, a graph of a frequency distribution. We
mark the number of observation within an interval with a
single point placed at the midpoint of the interval, and then
connect each set of points with a straight line.
4. Frequency polygons :
Age of 302 deaths from scarlet fever: a frequency polygon
5. Line graph
 It shows patterns or trend over some variable
usually time.
 In epidemiology, we commonly use this type of
graph to show a long series of data and compare
several series
 It is the method of choice for plotting rates over
time.
5. Line graph continued
Segmented bar chart
Clustered bar charts
Scatter diagram
If both of the variables are continuous or ordinal, then the
relationship between the two can be illustrated using a
scatter diagram.
This plots one variable against the other in a two-way
diagram.
➢ One variable is usually termed the x variable and is
represented on the horizontal axis.
➢ The second variable, known as the y variable, is plotted
on the vertical axis.
Scatter diagram

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