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Measures of Variation

This document discusses measures of variation in data sets beyond just the central tendency. It introduces concepts like range, variance, standard deviation, and coefficient of variation to describe the spread or dispersion of data. Examples are provided to demonstrate calculating and interpreting these measures of variability, including comparing the longevity of two paint brands and analyzing patient clinic data. The shape of a data distribution is also covered, with normal, skewed, and multimodal distributions explained.

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Shahla Naeem
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84 views15 pages

Measures of Variation

This document discusses measures of variation in data sets beyond just the central tendency. It introduces concepts like range, variance, standard deviation, and coefficient of variation to describe the spread or dispersion of data. Examples are provided to demonstrate calculating and interpreting these measures of variability, including comparing the longevity of two paint brands and analyzing patient clinic data. The shape of a data distribution is also covered, with normal, skewed, and multimodal distributions explained.

Uploaded by

Shahla Naeem
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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MEASURES OF VARIATION

Dr. Shahla Naeem


• Knowing the central tendency of a data set is helpful,
but it is not enough

• EXAMPLE
• A lab wants to see the longevity of two different brands A
and B of paints, so they tested 6 samples of each brand:
• Duration in months of paint for fading
• Brand A: 10, 60, 50, 30, 40, 20
• Mean 35 months
• Brand B: 35, 45, 30, 35, 40, 25
• Mean 35 months
• Measures of variability describe the spread or the
dispersion of a set of data

• Common Measures of Variability


• Range
• Variance
• Standard Deviation
• Coefficient of Variation
Range
• The difference between the largest and the smallest
values in a data set
• Ignores all data points except the two extremes
• Example:
• Range = Largest – Smallest = 48 - 35 = 13
• Simple and quick to compute
• but fails to be very useful since it considers only the extreme
values and does not take into consideration the bulk of the
observations
• Not widely used
Sample variance/Standard deviation
• Sample variance is the average of the square of the
deviations about the mean
• Sample variance denoted by (S2)

• Sample standard deviation is the square root of variance


• Sample standard deviation denoted by (s)
Example(sample variance)
• Age (yrs.) of the patients coming to clinic 57, 86, 42, 38,
90,and 66
• Mean (=63.167 yrs.)
Example ( sample standard
deviation)
• Example: Age (yrs.) of the patients coming
to the DM clinic. 57, 86, 42, 38, 90,and 66
• Mean (=63.167 yrs.)
Coefficient of variation
• An important application of mean & standard deviation

• The ratio of standard deviation to the mean, expressed


as %

• C.V= s/ x̄ * 100

• Depicts the size of standard deviation relative to its


mean
Calculation of CV
• For blood glucose
• Mean= 152.14
• SD= 54.72
• CV= 36%

• For serum cholesterol


• Mean=216.96
• SD= 38.82
• CV= 18%
Shape of distribution
• The shape of the distribution provides information about the
central tendency and variability of measurements

• Three common shapes of distributions are:


• Normal: bell-shaped curve; symmetrical
• Skewed: non-normal; non-symmetrical; can be positively or
negatively skewed
• Multimodal: has more than one peak (mode)
Normal or bell shaped

Mean
Median
Mode
Positively skewed distribution

Rule 1: Median always in between mode and mean


Rule 2: The mode is the peak
Negatively skewed distribution

Rule 1: Median always in between mode and mean


Rule 2: The mode is the peak
Relative Locations for Measures of
Central Tendency
Thank you

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