University of Baghdad

College of Medicine
2023-2024

Title: Mathematical Presentation of Data - Part 2

Grade: Third
Module: Research Methodology
Speaker: Assistant Professor Dr. Batool Ali Ghalib Yassin
Date: 20/9/2023
-
 Learning objectives University of Baghdad/ College of Medicine 2022-2023

At the end of this lecture you should be

able to:
 List the measures of dispersion, describe
their characteristics and identify their
uses

 Explain the steps for calculating

measures of dispersion and calculate the
range, standard error and coefficient of
variation
 Measures of Dispersion University of Baghdad/ College of Medicine 2022-2023

 As
well as measures of central tendency we need
measures of how variable the data are.

 Dispersion is a key concept in statistical thinking.

 The basic question being asked is how much do

the scores deviate around the Mean?
Measures of Dispersion are: University of Baghdad/ College of Medicine 2022-2023

 The range
 The Variance
 Standard Deviation
 Standard Error
 Coefficient of Variation
Measures of Dispersion; The Range
University of Baghdad/ College of Medicine 2022-2023

 The range is an important measurement

Range However, they do not give

much indication of the
spread of observations
Highest Lowest
Value Value
about the mean

 Simple to calculate
 Easy to understand
 It neglect all values in the center and depend on the extreme
value, extreme value are dependent on sample size
 It is not based on all observations
 It is not amenable for further mathematic treatment
 should be used in conjunction with other measures of variability
 Variance: University of Baghdad/ College of Medicine 2022-2023

The mean sum of squares of the deviation from the

mean.
e.g. if the data is: 1,2,3,4,5.
The mean for these data=3
the difference of each value in the set from the mean:
1-3= -2
2-3= -1
3-3= 0
4-3= 1
5-3= 2
 The summation of the differences =zero
 Summation of square of the differences is not zero
 The Variance University of Baghdad/ College of Medicine 2022-2023

Variance can never be

a negative value

All observations are

considered

Another formula for the variance The problem with the

variance is the squared
unit
 University of Baghdad/ College of Medicine 2022-2023

The standard deviation is the square root

of the variance

 The standard deviation measured the variability

between observations in the sample or the population
from the mean of that sample or that population.

 The unit is not squared

 SD is the most widely used measure of dispersion

 University of Baghdad/ College of Medicine 2022-2023

Standard Deviation SD

7 7 7 8 3
7 77 2
7 77
6 7 8 13
7 9

SD=0 SD=0.63
SD=4.04
The mean
of each
group is 7
 University of Baghdad/ College of Medicine 2022-2023

Standard Error of the mean (SE)

 It measures the variability or dispersion of the

sample mean from population mean

 It is used to estimate the population mean, and to

estimate differences between populations means

 SE=SD/√ n
 Coefficient of variation (CV): University of Baghdad/ College of Medicine 2022-2023

 It expresses the SD as a percentage of the mean

 CV= (S /mean) x 100 (mean of the sample)
 It answers the question: how big is the SD of the
distribution relative to the mean of the
distribution?
 It has no unit
 It is used to compare dispersion in two sets of
data especially when the units are different
 It measures relative rather than absolute
variation
 It takes in consideration all values in the set
 University of Baghdad/ College of Medicine 2022-2023

To summarize

Measures of Dispersion are:

 The range
 The Variance
 Standard Deviation
 Standard Error
 Coefficient of Variation
University of Baghdad/ College of Medicine 2022-2023