Lectures of Biostatistics

(103333)- (First)
Text book
BIOSTATISTICS. Basic Concepts and Methodology for the Health Sciences
By Wayne W. Daniel.
D. Ghassan Abufoudeh University of Petra

CHAPTER 1: Introduction to Biostatistics

Biostatistics is the branch of applied statistics directed toward applications in
Bios tatis tics is t he br anc h of appli ed st atis tics direct ed t oward applic

the health sciences and biology.

A population is the set of all measurements of interest to a researcher.
Typically, the population is not observed, but we wish to make statements or
inferences concerning it.

Samples are observed sets of measurements that are subsets of a corresponding

population.
Samples are used to describe and make inferences concerning the populations
from which they arise.
Statistical methods are based on these samples having been taken at random
from the population

Variables
The characteristic to be measured on the elements is called variable.

For example:
- Heart rate,
- The heights of adult males,
- The weights of preschool children,
- The ages of patients seen in a dental clinic.

Data are observations of variable made on the element of a population or

sample.
Types of variables

1. Quantitative Variables (Numerical). Can be broken into two types:

Continuous variables are values that can fall anywhere corresponding to points
on a line segment.

Examples: Weight, diastolic blood pressure.

Discrete variables are variables that can take on only a finite (or countably
infinite) number of outcomes. There are jumps or gaps between the values.

Examples: Family size (

Number of patients (

2. Qualitative Variables (Categorical, Non numerical). Commonly described

in one of the two ways:

Nominal variables that cannot be ordered or compared by greater or less than.

Examples: Male Female, Blood type.

Ordinal variables that can be ranked or ordered according to some criterion.

Examples: Blood pressure level: (high-good-low).

Student's grade: (A,B,C,D,F).
Change in patients after some treatment: (such as: vast
improvement, moderate improvement, no change, moderate degradation, vast
degradation/death).
EXERCISES:

Q1. For each of the following variables indicate whether it is quantitative

or qualitative variable:
(a)The blood type of some patient in the hospital.
(Qualitative Nominal)

(b) Blood pressure level of a patient.

(Qualitative ordinal)
(c) Weights of babies born in a hospital during a year.
(Quantitative continues)
(d) Gender of babies born in a hospital during a year.
(Qualitative nominal)
(e) The distance between the hospital to the house.
(Quantitative continues)
(f) Under-arm temperature of day-old infants born in a hospital. (Quantitative
continues)

Q2. Choose the right answer:

1-The variable is a
a. subset of the population.
b. parameter of the population.
c. relative frequency.
d. characteristic of the population to be measured.
e. class interval.

2-Which of the following is an example of discrete variable

a. the number of students taking biostatistics in this term at UOP.
b. the time to exercise daily.
c. whether or not someone has a disease
d. height of certain buildings
e. Level of education
3. Which of the following is not an example of discrete variable
a. the number of students at the class of statistics.
b. the number of times a child cry in a certain street.
c. the time to run a certain distance.
d. the number of buildings in a certain street.
e. number of educated persons in a family.
4. Which of the following is an example of nominal qualitative variable
a. blood pressure level.
b. the number of times a child brush his/her teeth.
c. whether or not someone fail in an exam.
d. Weight of babies at birth.
e. the time to run a certain distance

5. The continuous variable is a

a. variable with a specific number of values.
b. variable which can't be measured.
c. variable takes on values within intervals.
d. variable with no mode.
e. qualitative variable.

6. Which of the following is an example of continuous variable

a. The number of visitors of the clinic yesterday.
b. The time to finish the exam.
c. The number of patients suffering from certain disease.
d. Whether or not the answer is true

7. The discrete variable is

a- qualitative variable.
b- variable takes on values within interval.
C-variable with a specific number of values.
d- variable with no mode.

D. Ghassan Abufoudeh University of Petra

CHAPTER 2: Descriptive Statistics
In this chapter we learn several techniques for organizing and summarizing data
so that we may more easily determine what information they contain.
The object in summarization of data is the calculation of a single number that in
some way conveys important information about the data from which it was
calculated. Such single numbers that are used to describe data are called
descriptive measures.

Frequency Distribution for Discrete Random Variables

Example:
Suppose that we take sample of size 16 from children in a primary school
and get the following data about the number of their decayed teeth,
3,5,2,4,0,1,3,5,2,3,2,3,3,2,4,1
To construct a frequency table we need three columns:
1. Variable name
2. Frequency (f):
3. Relative frequency (R.f) =

Representing the simple frequency table using the bar chart

We can represent the above simple frequency table using the bar chart. We
can get:
1. The sample size?
2. Number of children with decayed teeth?
3. Relative frequency of children with decayed teeth?

GROUPED DATA: THE FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION

For large samples to represent the

data. We need to divide the data into groups or intervals or classes.
So, we need to determine:

1- The number of intervals (k).

Too few intervals are not good because information will be lost.
Too many intervals are not helpful to summarize the data.

2- The range (R).

It is the difference between the largest and the smallest observation in the
data set. [R=Max Min]

3- The Width of the interval (w).

Class intervals generally should be of the same width.
Example: Frequency Distribution of Ages of 189 Subjects

The Cumulative Frequency:

It can be computed by adding successive frequencies.

The Cumulative Relative Frequency:

It can be computed by adding successive relative frequencies.

The Mid - interval:

(Lower bound + Upper bound)/2
From the above frequency table, complete the table then answer the following
questions:
1-The number of objects with age less than 50 years?
2-The number of objects with age between 40-69 years?
3-Relative frequency of objects with age between 70-79 years?
4-Relative frequency of objects with age more than 69 years?
5-The percentage of objects with age between 40-49 years?
6- The percentage of objects with age less than 60 years?
7-The Range (R)?
8- Number of intervals (K)?
9- The width of the interval (W)?
Representing the grouped frequency table using the histogram

To draw the histogram, the true classes limits should be used. They can
be computed by subtracting 0.5 from the lower limit and adding 0.5 to the
upper limit for each interval.

Representing the grouped frequency table using the Polygon

Q1] For a sample of patients, we obtain the following graph for
approximated hours spent without pain after a certain surgery

1) The type of the graph is:

(a)Bar chart (b) polygon (c) histogram (d) line (e) curve (f) not known

2) The number of patients stayed the longest time without pain is:
(a) 10 (b) 15 (c) 6 (d) 5 (e) 80 (f) 1

3) The percent of patients spent 3.5 hours or more without pain is:
(a) 37.5% (b) 68.75% (c) 18.75% (d) 50% (e) 25% (f) 30%

4) The lowest number of hours spent without pain is:

(a) 10 (b) 1 (c) 0.5 (d) 5 (e) 25 (f) 6.5

5) The mode equals

(a) 80 (b) 3 (c) 15 (d) 2, 4 (e) 6 (f) we can't find it
Q2] The following histogram show the frequency distribution of
pathologic tumor size (in cm) for a sample of 110 cancer patients:

1. The percent of cancer patients with approximate level of pathologic

tumor size =2 cm is:
(a) 18% (b) 50% (c) 16.36% (d) 32.72% (e) 36% (f) 0%

2. The number of cancer patients with lowest pathologic tumor size is:
(a) 0.5 (b) 3 (c) 11 (d) 13 (e) 15 (f) 24

3. The approximate size of pathologic tumor with highest percentage of

patients is:
(a) 3 (b) 1 (c) 36 (d) 110 (e) 32.72% (f) 16.36%

4. What the approximate value of the sample mean

(a) 18.33 (b) 36 (c) 1 (d) 1.75 (e) 1.586 (f) we can't find it

5. The mode equals

(a) 1 (b) 3 (c) 36 (d) 55 (e) 110 (f) we can't find it

6. The approximate value of the sample variance

(a) 3 (b) 0.6 (c) 0.774 (d) 1.586 (e) 110 (f) we can't find it
Q3] The following table shows the number of hours 45 hospital patients
slept following the administration of a certain anesthetic.

(a) From these data construct a relative frequency distribution

(b) How many of the measurements are greater than 10?
Ans: 8
(c) What percentage of the measurements are between 6-15?
Ans: 49%
(d) What proportion of the measurement is less than or equal 15?
Ans: 0.96

Q4] The following are the number of babies born during a year in 60
community hospitals.

From these data construct a relative frequency distribution