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 INTRODUCTION TO BIOSTATISTICS

Objectives of the Session

• By the end of this class, students will be
able to;
Define what is statistics
Define what is biostatistics
Types/ branches of statistics
Explain the descriptive statistics
Discuss Measure of central tendency
Discuss Measure of variance/dispersion
Describe importance of biostatistics for nursing
professional 2
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Definition of Biostatistics
• Statistics: Branch of mathematics that deals with the collection,
organization, and analysis of numerical data and with such problems as
experiment design and decision making.

• It is the science, which deals with collection, presentation, analysis and

interpretation of numerical data.

• There are broadly two types of statistics –

1. Descriptive statistics
2. Inferential statistics
 4

Definition of Biostatistics …

• Biostatistics: defined as application of statistical methods to

medical, biological and public health related problems.
• It is the scientific treatment given to the medical data derived
from group of individuals or patients.
Collection of data.
Presentation of the collected data.
Analysis and interpretation of the results.
Making decisions on the basis of such analysis
 Importance of Biostatistics in 5

Nursing Practice
• To compare the efficacy of a particular drug/treatment. Evaluating
the merits of different procedures.
• Documentation of medical history of diseases. To find an association
between two attributes such as cancer and smoking
• Can use statistics to identify patterns in vital signs and symptoms so
they can make informed decisions to better respond to a patient 's
changing medical status.
• Even the use data sheets or frequency charts to document the timing of
medications given to patients is a way nurses can use statistics.
Planning and conduct of clinical studies.
• In providing methods for definition of 'normal' and 'abnormal’.
• It is important as researchers to understand statistics so that they can be
informed, evaluate the credibility and usefulness of information, and
 6

Types of Statistics

1. Descriptive Statistics
• It is used to quantitatively describe the attributes of the known data
and provides summaries of either the sample or the population.
• Graphs, charts, and tables can be used to represent descriptive
statistics.
• Descriptive statistics are also categorized into different categories:
i. Measure of frequency
ii. Measure of central tendency
iii. Measure of dispersion
 7

Types of descriptive statistics…

Frequency Distribution:
. It is the pattern of frequencies of a variable. It's the number of times
each possible value of a variable occurs in a dataset.
• The collected information can organized in tabulation/graphical
representation form.
• It has the advantage of displaying raw data in an organized, easy-to-
read format. The scores that occur the most frequently can be easily
identified.
• It organize and present frequency counts so that the information can
be interpreted more easily.
 Types of descriptive Statistics…
8

Frequency Distribution…

Example: The following are the scores of 12 students in the

mathematics quiz 14,16,17,20,14,16,20,17,17,14,14,20. Let’s put this
data into a frequency distribution to see how many children receive the
same score.
Mathematics quiz
Number of students
marks
14 4
16 2
17 3
20 3
 9

Types of frequency
distributions
• The four different forms of frequency distributions;

i. ungrouped frequency distributions

ii. grouped frequency distributions
iii. cumulative frequency distributions, and
iv. relative frequency distributions.
 10

Types of frequency distributions…

Ungrouped frequency distribution:

• Is a type of frequency distribution that displays the frequency of each individual
data value instead of groups of data values.

• Grouped frequency distribution: In this type, the data is arranged

and separated into groups called class intervals. The frequency of data
belonging to each class interval is noted in a frequency distribution table. The
grouped frequency table shows the distribution of frequencies in class intervals.
 11

Frequency Distribution Table…

• A frequency distribution table is a chart that shows the frequency of each of the
items in a data set.
• For example: Marks obtained by 20 students in the test are as follows. 5, 10, 20,
15, 5, 20, 20, 15, 15, 15, 10, 10, 10, 20, 15, 5, 18, 18, 18, 18. To arrange the data
in grouped table we have to make class intervals.
Marks obtained in No. of
Marks obtained
Test Students No. of Students
in Test (class
(Frequency)
intervals)
distributions

5 3
ungrouped
frequency

0–5 3

ons
10 4

uti y
fre uped
c
dis quen
6 – 10 4
15 5

gro

trib
11 – 15 5
18 4
16 – 20 8
20 4
Total 20
Total 20
 Frequency distribution
The following technical terms are important
when a continuous frequency distribution is
formed.
Class limits: Class limits are the lowest and highest
values that can be included in a class. For example
take the class 51-55. The lowest value of the class is
51 and the highest value is 55. In this class there can
be no value lesser than 51 or more than 55. 51 is the
lower class limit and 55 is the upper class limit.
Class interval: The difference between the upper and
lower limit of a class is known as class interval of that
class.
Class frequency: The number of observations
corresponding to a particular class is known as the
frequency of that class
 13

Types of frequency distributions…

• Relative frequency distribution: It tells the proportion of the

total number of observations associated with each category.

• Cumulative frequency distribution: It is the sum of the first

frequency and all frequencies below it in a frequency distribution.
You have to add a value with the next value then add the sum with
the next value again and so on till the last. The last cumulative
frequency will be the total sum of all frequencies.
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Types of frequency distributions…

Cumulative frequency distribution:
• The total of frequencies, in which the frequency of the first class interval is
added to the frequency of the second class interval and then the sum is
added to the frequency of the third class interval and so on.

Marks obtained in No. of Cumulativ

Test (class Students e
intervals) (Frequency) frequency

0–5 3 3

6 – 10 4 7

11 – 15 5 12

16 – 20 8 20
 Frequency Distribution Table…
15

Relative frequency Distribution:

• Can be defined as the number of times an event occurs
divided by the total number of events occurring in a
given scenario. The relative frequency formula is given
as:
Relative Frequency =
No. of Cumulativ
Marks obtained in Frequency
Students e
Test (class intervals) (proportion)
(Frequency) frequency

0–5 3 3 0.15

6 – 10 4 7 0.2

11 – 15 5 12 0.25

16 – 20 8 20 0.4

Total 20 40
 16

Types of Descriptive Statistics…

Measures of central tendency:
• It is a summary measure that attempts to describe a whole set of data
with a single value that represents the middle or center of its distribution.
• These measures are used to describe data with respect to a single central
point.
• The statistical measure that identifies a single value as representative of
an entire distribution. This single value is most typical/representative of
the collected data.
• The three types of central tendency are:
i. Mean
ii. Median
iii. mode
 17

Types of Descriptive Statistics…

Measures of central tendency…
i. Mean: To calculate it, add up the values of all the terms and then
divide by the number of terms. average of all the terms.

mean = sum of all items/observation

total number of items/observation
Example : 14,16,17,20,14,16,20,17,17,14,14,20. Mean?

x¯= 14+16+17+20+14+16+17+17+14+14+20 = 199

= 16.58
12 12
 18

Types of Descriptive Statistics…

Measures of central tendency…

ii. Median: It is the middle number in a sorted, ascending or descending list of
numbers and can be more descriptive of that data set than the average. It is the point
above and below which half (50%) the observed data falls, and so represents the
midpoint of the data.
Example : 14,16,17,20,14,16,20,17,17,14,14,20. Median?

Even Number of Observations

median = 14,14,14,14,16,16,17,17,17,20, 20, 20 = 16+17 = 16.5

2
Odd Number of Observations

median = 14,14,14,14,16,16,17,17,17,20, 20, 20,20 = 17

 Median
Median is the middle value of the dataset in which the dataset is
arranged in the ascending order or in descending order.
When the dataset contains an even number of values, then the
median value of the dataset can be found by taking the mean of
the middle two values.
If you have skewed distribution, the best measure of finding the
central tendency is the median.
The median is less sensitive to outliers (extreme scores) than the
mean and thus a better measure than the mean for highly
skewed distributions,
• For example: family income. mean of 20, 30, 40, and 990 is
(20+30+40+990)/4 =270. The median of these four observations
is (30+40)/2 =35. Here 3 observations out of 4 lie between 20-40.
So, the mean 270 really fails to give a realistic picture of the
major part of the data. It is influenced by extreme value 990.
 20

Measures of central tendency…

• Properties of the Median:
Uniqueness
It is an average position
Simplicity
It is affected by the number of items than by extreme values
It is insensitive to very large or very small values unlike the mean
The principal weakness of the sample median is that it is
determined mainly by the middle points in a sample - It is not as
generally familiar as the arithmetic mean
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Types of Descriptive Statistics…

Measures of central tendency…

iii. Mode: It is defined as the value that has a higher frequency in a given
set of values. It is the value that appears the most number of times.

Example : mode = 14,14,14,14,16,16,17,17,17,20, 20, 20 = 14

mode = 14,14,14,14,16,16,17,17,17,20, 20, 20,20 = 14, 20
Properties of the mode:
• It is an average of position
• It is not affected by extreme values
• It is the most typical value of the distribution
• It is not amenable to mathematical treatment
 22

Types of Descriptive Statistics…

Measures of dispersion:
• These measures are used to describe the variability of data. In other words,
it is used to quantify the spread of a distribution about a central value.
• It helps to know how much homogenous or heterogeneous the data is.
i. Range,
ii. variance,
iii. standard deviation and
iv. quartile deviation are the types that fall under this category.

• Range: is the difference between the lowest and highest values. It can
sometimes be misleading when there are extremely high or low values.
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Measures of dispersion…
Range…
Example 1 : 14,16,17,20,14,16,20,17,17,14,14,20. range?

Range = Maximum value – minimum value = 20 – 14 = 6

Example 2: if In {8, 11, 5, 9, 7, 6, 2351}: The single value of
2351 makes the range large, but most values are around 10.

Quartiles
• Quartiles are the values that divide a list of numbers into quarters:
• Put the list of numbers in order
• Then cut the list into four equal parts
• The Quartiles are at the "cuts"
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Measures of dispersion…
Quartiles…
Example: 5, 7, 4, 4, 6, 2, 8
• Put them in order: 2, 4, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

• Cut the list into quarters:

• Quartiles of 2, 4, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 = (7 items)

• And the result is:

• Quartile 1 (Q1) = 4, i.e. ( 7+1)/4 = 2( number located on 2nd order is 4)

• Quartile 2 (Q2), which is also the Median, = 5 i.e ( 6-2 =4 , so number on 4th order
is 5
• Quartile 3 (Q3) = 7 i.e ( 1+7)x3/4 = 6, then number on 6th order is 7.
 Quartiles…
25

Sometimes a "cut" is between two numbers ... the Quartile is the

average of the two numbers.
Example: {4, 17, 7, 14, 18, 12, 3, 16, 10, 4, 4, 11}

Ordered set = {3, 4, 4, 4, 7, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17, 18}

First Quartile,
Q1 = = = 3.25 = 3rd +0.25(4th -3rd ) = 4 +0.25 (4-4) = 4

Third Quartile,
Q3 = = = 9th +0.75 (10th – 9th ) = 14+0.75 (16-14) = 15.5
 Interquartile Range (IQR) 26

• The Interquartile Range (IQR) formula is a measure of the middle 50% of a

data set.
• The difference between the upper and lower quartile is known as the
interquartile range.
• To calculate it just subtract Quartile 1 from Quartile 3, like this:
Example: {4, 17, 7, 14, 18, 12, 3, 16, 10, 4, 4, 11}
• Ordered set = {3, 4, 4, 4, 7, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17, 18}

• Q1 = = = 3.25 = 3rd +0.25(4th -3rd ) = 4 +0.25 (4-4) = 4

• Q3 = = = 9th +0.75 (10th – 9th ) = 14+0.75 (16-14) = 15.5
 IQR =Q3 – Q1 = 15.5 – 4 = 11.5
 27

Measures of dispersion…
percentile:
• Is a measure indicating the value below
which a given percentage of
observations in a group of observations
fall.

• It is a value that separate a set of data

into 100pts equal parts.

• If a score is said to be in the 90th

percentile, this means that 90% of the
scores in the distribution are equal to or
lower than that score.
 percentile …
28

Steps ;
• Step 1: Arrange the score in ascending order.
• Step 2: Plug the values in the formula to find n.

P90 = 94 means
that 90% of
students got less
than 94 and 10%
of students got
more than 94
 29

Measures of dispersion…
Variance : is a measure of variability. a measure of
dispersion that takes into account the spread of all data
points in a data set. If the variance is small: The data is
concentrated about the mean.
• The variance for a population is calculated by: Finding the
mean(the average). Subtracting the mean from each
number in the data set and then squaring the result.
 30

Measures of dispersion…
Variance…
Example 1 : 14,16,17,20,14,16,20,17,17,14,14,20. variance? (mean
=16.58)

= =+ + …

= sample variance
Xi = the value of the one observation
= the mean value of all observations
n = the number of observations
 31

Measures of dispersion…
Variance…
Example 1 : 14,16,17,20,14,16,20,17,17,14,14,20. variance? (mean
=16.58)

= =+ + …

= sample variance
Xi = the value of the one observation
= the mean value of all observations
n = the number of observations
 Standard deviation
32

• Is the average amount of variability in your dataset. It tells you, on

average, how far each value lies from the mean.
• It is a measure of how far each observed value is from the mean.

• A high standard deviation means that values are generally far from
the mean, while a low standard deviation indicates that values are
clustered close to the mean.
•
 Types of Statistics… 33

2. Inferential Statistics
• Inferential statistics are used when generalizations about the population need to be
made and conclusions need to be drawn based on the available samples.
• Inferential statistics uses various types of statistical tests and sampling techniques in
order to make inferences about the population data. The measures of inferential
statistics are given below:
• Hypothesis testing - It is used to test some assumptions and make inferences
about the population parameters by using an estimate of the sample. There are many
types of statistical tests used for this purpose. Some of them are the z test, t test,
f test, and ANOVA test.
• Regression Analysis - This type of analysis is used when the effect of change in
one variable causing a change in another variable needs to be evaluated and
quantified. Simple linear, multiple linear, nominal, logistic, and ordinal regression are
the types of regression analysis.
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