Hawassa University College of Medicine and Health students

School of Public Health

Biostatistics Course for midwifery students

Mekdes W. (MPH in Epidemiology)

February,2024
Introduction to Biostatistics
& Descriptive statistics
Course objective

• At the end of this session you will be able to understand the

following:

 Definition and classification of statistics

 Types of variables

 Measurement of scale

 Methods of data collection, organization and presentation

 Numerical summary measures

 Measure of central tendency

 Measure of dispersion
Class question

1. What is statistics?
2. What is biostatistics?
 What is Biostatistics?
 Statistics: A field of study concerned with methods and
procedures for:
 Collection, organization, analysis, summarization and
interpretation of numerical data, &
 to make scientific inferences about a body of data when only
a small part of the data is observed.

 It helps us use numbers to communicate ideas.

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 The tools of statistics are employed in many fields such as business,
education, psychology, agriculture, economics, …….

 when we employ the application of statistical methods to the fields

of biology and Health Sciences we use the term Biostatistics.

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 Provides methods of organizing information

 Assessment of health status

 Resource allocation (planning)

 Magnitude of association between exposure and outcome

 Strong vs weak association between exposure and outcome

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 Assessment of risk factors
 Cause & effect relationship

 Evaluation of new vaccine or drug

 How effective is the vaccine (drug)?
 Is the effect due to chance or some bias?

 Drawing of inferences
 Information from sample to population

 Essential for understanding, appraisal and

critique of scientific literature
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Branches of Statistics

1. Descriptive statistics: is concerned with the organization,

presentation, and summarization of data.
 Helps to identify the general features and trends in a set of
data and extracting useful information
 Also very important in communicate the final results of a study

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 2. Inferential statistics: deals with techniques of making
conclusions about the population based on the
information obtained from a sample drawn from that
population.

 The inferences are drawn from particular properties of

sample
to particular properties of population.
 Inferential statistics builds upon descriptive statistics.
Includes: Making inferences, Estimation, hypothesis
testing, determining relationships, making
predictions, etc.
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 Data, population, Sample, parameter, Statistic, Variables
Data: are numbers which can be obtained from taking measurements
or can be obtained by counting or observation.
Numerical descriptions of things
 The raw material for statistics.

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 Population and sample
Population: refers to any well defined groups of subjects/objects who
share common characteristics.
 A group of people,institutions or items
that have something in common for which
we wish to draw conclusions at a
particular time.
E.g., All TB patients in Ethiopia, all hospitals in Hawassa
 Population is generally large & difficult to study all of them.

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 Population and sample…
Sample:
 A small group or subsetof a which
population about information is actually
obtained. are used to
 Samples describe & make
inferences about the populations from which they
arise
 Statistical methods are based on these samples
 Samples should be selected using a
suitable method so that it can be representative (random
sample)

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 Parameter and
statistic
Parameter:
A numerical descriptive measure derived
from the data of a population.

 They exist but the specific value is unknown

Statistic: A descriptive measure from

computed the data of a sample.

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 Parameter and statistic….

• Sincethe population is usually

large and is not actually observed,
the parameters are considered
unknown constants.
• Statistical inferential methods are used
to make inferences/statements
concerningthe unknown parameters,
based on sample data.
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GOAL OF STATISTICS
 Variabl
e
• Variable: A characteristic which takes different values
in different persons, places, or things.

• Any aspect of an individual or object that is measured (e.g.

BP) or recorded (e.g. age, sex) and takes any value.

• There may be one variable in a study or many.

• E.g. A study of treatment outcome of TB

 sex, weight (kg), smear result (Positive, negative or uncertain), culture

result (negative, positive), cured after 6 months (yes/no).

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Variables can be broadly classified into:

– Categorical (or Qualitative) and

– Numerical variables(or Quantitative).

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1. Categorical variable: A variable which can not be measured in
quantitative form but can only be sorted by name or categories

• Not able to be measured as we measure height or weight

• The notion of magnitude is absent or implicit.

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 Categorical variable is divided into two:
1.
Nominal:
• The simplest type of variable, in which the values fall into
un-ordered categories or classes

• Uses names, labels or symbols to assign each

measurement.

– Examples: Blood type, sex, race,

marital status

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2. Ordinal:

• Assigns each measurement to one of a limited number of

categories that are ranked in terms of order.

• Although non-numerical, can be considered to have

a natural ordering

– Examples: Patient status, cancer stages

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2. Quantitative variable: A variable that can be measured
or
counted and expressed numerically.

• Height, weight, # of children, etc.

• Has the notion of magnitude.

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 Quantitative variable is divided into two:

1. Discrete: It can only have a limited number of discrete

values (whole numbers).

– E.g. the number of episodes of diarrhoea a child has had in a

year. You can’t have 12.5 episodes of diarrhoea

• Characterized by gaps or interruptions in the values.

• Both the order and magnitude of the values matter.

• The values are not just labels, but are actual measurable
quantities.

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2. Continuous variable:

It can have an infinite number of possible values in any

given interval.

• Both the magnitude and the order of the values matter.

• Does not possess the gaps or interruptions

• E.g. Weight, Height, etc.

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 Variabl
e

Qualitative Quantitative
(Categorical) (Numerical)

Nominal Ordinal Discrete Continuous

e.g. ethnic e.g. response e.g. # of e.g. height
group to treatment admissions

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Scales of measurement
• scales of measurement refer to ways in which
variables/numbers are defined and categorized.
• All measurements are not the same.
• There are four types of scales of measurement
1. Nominal scale:

• The simplest type of scale of measurment, in which the

values fall into un-ordered categories or classes

• Uses names, labels or symbols to assign each

measurement.

– Examples: Blood type, sex, race,

marital status

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Example of nominal
Scale:
Race/Ethnicity: • The numbers have NO
1. Black meaning
2. White • They are labels only
3. Latino
4. Other

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• If nominal data take only two possible
values, they are called dichotomous or
binary.

• E.g. sex is dichotomous (male or female).

• Yes/no questions

– E.g., Is the patient cured from TB at 6 months of Rx?

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2. Ordinal scale:

• Assigns each measurement to one of a limited number of

categories that are ranked in terms of order.

• Although non-numerical, can be considered to have

a natural ordering

– Examples: Patient status, cancer stages

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Example of ordinal scale:
• The numbers have
• Pain level:
1. None LIMITED meaning
2. Mild 4>3>2>1 is all we know
3. Moderate apart from their utility as
4. Severe labels

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3. Interval scale:
- Measured on a continuum and differences between any two numbers
on a scale are of known size.
Example: Temp. in oF on 4 consecutive days
Days: A B C D
Temp. oF: 50 55 60
65
For these data, not only is day A with 50o F cooler than day D with
65o but is 15o cooler.
- It has no true zero point. “0” is arbitrarily chosen and doesn‟t reflect
the absence the attribute.

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4. . Ratio scale:

- It is the highest scale of measurement.

- Measurement begins at a true zero point and the scale has

equal space. i.e no number exist below zero

- Examples: Height, weight, BP, etc.

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 A measurement on a higher scale can be
transformed into one on a lower scale, but not vice versa.

E.g., weight of a child= 3000gm, (ratio scale)

weight of a child= under weight, normal, over weight (Ordinal scale)

Weight of a child= normal, not normal (nominal scale)

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Interval
Ordinal
Nominal

Ratio
Degree of precision in measuring
Dependent vs. Independent Variable

Dependent: The variable (s) we

measure as the outcome of interest , or
response
Independent: The variable that
explains the dependent variable
(s), or explanatory/ predictor variable.

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 Quiz 1
I. Classify the below variables as categorical and numerical and
write in bracket as nominal, ordinal, discrete or continuous

A. Number of female students in your class

B. Marital status: 1=married, 2=single, 3=widowed,
4=divorced
C. Prognosis: 1=very good, 2=good, 3=fair, 4=bad,
5=very bad
D. First temperature following admission (F⁰)
E. Received oral medications: 1=yes, 2= no
G. Weight of infant at birth (gm)
H. Type of disease: 1= chronic 2= acute

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 Descriptive Statistics

• Involves techniques used to organize and summarize and present

a set of data.

• Numbers that have not been summarized and organized are called
raw data.

• Before interpretation & communication of the findings, the raw

data must be organized, summarized and presented in a clear and
understandable way.

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1.Methods of data collection
2. Methods of Data Organization and Presentation

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