The term Biostatistics can be

understood as:
 Statistics arising out of
biological sciences,
particularly from the fields of
medicine and public health
- The methods used in dealing
with statistics in the fields of
medicine, biology and public
health, and planning,
conducting and analysing data
which arise in investigation in
these branches
Statistical methods are necessary
in the following broad areas of
clinical medicine:
 In the documentation of the
medical history of diseases,
their course of progression,
variability between patients,
their association with specific
characteristics such as age
and sex
In the planning and conduct


of therapeutic or prophylactic
trials to determine and
establish the efficacy of
various types of therapy
In evaluating the merits of


different kinds of procedures

in surgery, radiation,
 physiotherapy, etc. upon
patients by following them
up over a period of time  
 To provide assessment of the
state of health in the
community and to determine
met and unmet health needs;
for example, by providing
statistics of causes of death
or illness, classified according
to various health services
 To indicate the basic factors
underlying the state of health
by diagnosing community ills
and to discover solutions to
such health problems  
In public health, administrative
measures are assessed. For
example, lowering of morbidity
rate of typhoid after
pasteurisation of milk may be
attributed to clean supply of
milk if it is statistically proved.
Fall in birth rate may be the
result of family planning
methods adopted under
National Family Planning
Programme or due to rise in
living standard or education
etc.  
 Hospital Information System
(HIS) is vital to decision
making and plays a crucial
 role in the success of the
organization.
 Computerization of the
medical records and
documentation has resulted
in efficient data management
and information
dissemination for the users.
 HIS assists in decision
making, and medical audit.
 HIS helps in education and
research.
 students undertaking
professional health care
education, and those
practicing as professionals in
health care, understanding
the statistical terms used in
 research is of paramount
importance when evaluating
research studies. 


Health Care Utilization

Researchers employ scientific
methods to gather data on
human population samples. 
The health care industry
benefits from knowing
consumer market
characteristics such as age,
sex, race, income and
disabilities. 
Health administrators refere


statistics on service
utilization to apply for grant
funding and to justify budget
 expenditures to their
governing boards.
Resource Allocation
importance of statistics in the
allocation of scarce medical
resources.
Needs Assessment
 Statistical analysis is a critical
component in a needs
assessment.
 Statistics are equally
important to pharmaceutical
and technology companies in
developing product lines that
meet the needs of the
populations they serve.
Quality Improvement
 Health care providers strive
to produce effective goods
and services efficiently. 
By establishing benchmarks,
or standards of service
excellence, quality
improvement managers can
measure future outcomes. 
Product Development
Data are collected and
carefully reported in clinical
trials of new technologies and
treatments to weigh products'
benefits against their risks.
Market research studies steer
developers toward highly
competitive product lines. 
 Statistics indirectly influence
product pricing by describing
consumer demand in
measurable units.


 Variable  
 o A characteristic that is observed
or manipulated 
o Can take on different values
 It defines the variable as we
conceive it i.e. dictionary definition
e.g. Age of an individual
characterises how old he/she is,
weight of an individual
characterises how heavy he/she is
etc.
 Operational definition : Defines the
characteristic we will actually
measure e.g. education- no. of
years of education or last grade
attended.   


 Independent variables 
o Precede dependent variables in
time 
 o Are often manipulated by the
researcher
o The treatment or intervention
that is used in a study
 Dependent variables 
o What is measured as an
outcome in a study 
o Values depend on the
independent variable

 Continuous Variable: A
variable for which there is a
possible value between any
other two possible values.
e.g.: Height.
 Discrete variable: A variable
that can take only certain
values. e.g.: No. of patient in a
 hospital, no of bed in a
hospital etc. 
 Composite variable: A
variable based on two or more
other variables e.g. Incidence
and prevalence rates, sex
ratios etc. 
 Quantitative-Numerical
o numerical measurement (that
can be measured in the usual
sense)
 Height
 Weight
 Qualitative-Categorical 
 with no natural sense of
ordering
 Gender
  Hair color 
 Blood type

 There are 4 levels of

measurement 
o Nominal, ordinal, interval, and
ratio
1. Nominal or Categorical
Scale 
o Data are coded by a number,
name, or letter that is assigned
to a category or group
o Numbers may be used to
identify the categories with no
quantitative significance  
o Examples
 Gender (e.g., male, female) 
 Marital status ( single, married,
widowed, divorced)
2. Ordinal 
 Is similar to nominal because
the measurements involve
categories
 However, the categories are
ordered by rank
 Examples
 Pain level (e.g., mild, moderate,
severe) 
 Years of education (0, 1-5, 6-9,
10-12, more than 12)  
 Ordinal values only describe
order, not quantity
o Thus, severe pain is not the
same as 2 times mild pain
 The only mathematical
operations allowed for
nominal and ordinal data are
counting of categories
 o e.g., 25 males and 30 females
3. Interval 
 Measurements are ordered (like
ordinal data) 
 Have equal intervals 
 Does not have a true zero 
 Examples
 The Fahrenheit scale, where 0°
does not correspond to an
absence of heat (no true zero) 
 In contrast to Kelvin, which does
have a true zero
4. Ratio 
 Measurements have equal
intervals 
 There is a true zero 
 Ratio is the most advanced
level of measurement, which
can handle most types of
mathematical operations