Health care Statistics

By: Abdelfattah Elbarsha

Death (Mortality) Rates
The death rates is the proportion of inpatient discharges that end
in death, usually expressed as a percentage. The hospital death
rate is defined as the number of inpatient deaths for a given
period of time divided by the total number of live discharges and
deaths for the same time period.

A synonymous term for hospital death rate is gross death rate.

 Gross (Hospital) Death Rate

Formula for Calculating Gross Death Rate:

𝑁𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑖𝑛𝑝. 𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑠 𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑙𝑢𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑁𝐵 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑑 × 100

𝐺𝐷𝑅 =
𝑁𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑖𝑠. 𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑙𝑢𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐴&𝐶 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑁𝐵 𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑑

Example:
If a hospital had five deaths and 400 discharges for a month, then the
gross death rate would be :
5 × 100
𝐺𝐷𝑅 = = 1.25%
400
• Death is a type of discharge or disposition
– Any data representing total discharges include deaths for
that period. Thus, deaths are always assumed to be included
in the total discharges in the denominator unless otherwise
specified.
• If deaths of newborn inpatients are included in the numerator,
all discharges of newborn inpatients must be included in the
denominator.
– Ordinarily, newborns are included in the gross death rate
unless a facility chooses to calculate their rate separately.
• Patients who are dead on arrival (DOA) are not included in the
gross death rate because DOA are not admitted to the hospital.
• Patients who die in the Emergency Services
Department (ESD) are not included in the gross death
rate because they were not admitted to the hospital.

• Patients who die in the hospital while as an outpatient

are not included in the gross death rate.

• Fetal deaths are not included in the gross death rate

but are calculated separately.
• Because death rates are ordinarily small, the
calculation should be carried out to two decimal
places.

• It is a good idea to put a zero in front of the decimal

(for example, 0.23%) to show the casual observer that
the rate is less than one percent.
• We may use the previous GDR formula more specifically
by means of the formula referred as the case fatality rate :
𝑁𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑑𝑖𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑎 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑑 × 100
𝐶𝐹𝑅 =
𝑁𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑜 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒

Example: If a hospital had 20 influenza discharges last year

and six deaths, the CFR is :

6 × 100
𝐶𝐹𝑅 = = 30.00 %
20
Descriptive Statistics in Healthcare
 Descriptive Statistics in Healthcare
Objectives:
At the conclusion of this chapter, you should be able to:
• Define descriptive statistics.

• Define and compute mean, median, and mode.

• Define and differentiate among range, variance, and standard

deviation.

• Calculate rang, variance, and standard deviation

• Define and compute the correlation.

 Descriptive Statistics
• Used to explain data in ways that are manageable and easily
understood.

Measures of Central Tendency

In summarizing data, it is often useful to have a single typical or

average number that is representative of the entire collection of
data or specific population.

Three measures of central tendency are frequently used:

mean, median, and mode.

Frequency Distribution
Shows the values that a variable can take and the number of observations
associated with each value .
• A variable is a characteristic or property that may take on different
values.
Mean (The arithmetic average).
It is common to use the term “average” to designate mean.
To obtain the mean, add all the values in a frequency distribution and
then divide the total by the number of values in the distribution

σ 𝑥𝑖
𝑋ത =
𝑛
Example: Seven hospital inpatients have following length of
stay: 2 , 3 , 4 , 3 , 5 , 1 , and 3 days. Construct the frequency
distribution and then find the mean.
Solution :

( In Class )
 Median
❖ The midpoint (center) of the distribution of values.

❖ It is the point above and below which 50 percent of the values lie

❖ Describes the middle of the data.

❖ The median value is obtained by arranging the numerical

observations in ascending or descending order and then
determining the value in the middle of the array. This may be the
middle observation (if there is an odd number of values) or a
point halfway between the two middle values (if there is an even
number of values).
❖To arrive at the median in an even-numbered distribution,
add the two middle values together and divide by 2 .

❖The advantage of using the median as a measure of central

tendency is that it is unaffected by extreme values .

❖May be used in reporting data instead of the mean.

❖Provides a more revealing representation of the data when

there are outliers in the distribution.
Example:

The weights of 6 women are 110,115,120,125,122,227, find the

median ?
Solution:

In Class
 Mode
❖The value that occurs with highest frequency
❖It is the simplest of the measures of central tendency because
it does not require any calculations
❖In the case of a small number of values, each value likely may
occur only once and there will be no mode
❖The mode is rarely used as a sole descriptive measure of
central tendency because it may not be unique because there
may be two or more modes These are called bimodal or
multimodal distributions
Notes:
❖ The choice of a measure of central tendency depends on the number
of values and the nature of their distribution.
❖ Sometimes the mean, median, and mode are identical.
❖ The mean is preferable because it includes information from all
observations.
❖ If the series of values contains a few values that are unusually high
or low, the median may represent the series better than the mean.
❖ The mode is often used in samples where the most typical value is
preferred.
❖ The mode does not have to be numerical.
 Exercise

Fifteen infants were born at Community Hospital during the week

of December 1. Determine the measures of central tendency for
the following infant birth weights (in grams):