Statistical Decision Making

AQ054-3-M and Version 3

Introduction to SPSS
 Topic & Structure of The Lesson

 Data Entry
 Data Labelling
 Analyse using Graphical Presentation
 SPSS Application

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 Learning Outcomes

• At the end of this topic, You should be able

to
 Carry out statistical analysis and perform
the necessary calculations such as
present data graphically, data entry and
data labelling using SPSS.

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 Key Terms You Must Be Able To
Use
• If you have mastered this topic, you should be able to use the following
terms correctly in your assignments and exams:

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 Data Entry

There are 2 ways to enter data into SPSS:

1. Directly enter in to SPSS by typing in Data View

2. Enter into other database software such as Excel

then import into SPSS

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 SPSS Data View

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 SPSS Variable View

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 Data Entry
1. Give each variable a valid name (8 characters or less with no spaces or
punctuation, beginning with a letter not a numeric number). Short, easy to
remember word names. Avoid the following variable names: TEST, ALL, BY, EQ,
GE, GT, LE, LT, NE, NOT, OR, TO, WITH. These are used in the SPSS syntax
and if they were permitted, the software would not be able to distinguish between
a command and a variable. Each variable name must be unique; duplication is
not allowed. Variable names are not case sensitive. The names NEWVAR,
NewVar, and newvar are all considered identical.

2. Encode categorical variables. Convert letters and words to numbers.

3. Avoid mixing symbols with data. Convert them to numbers.

4. Example: Give each patient a unique, sequential case number (ID). Place this
ID number in the first column on the left

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 5. Each variable should be in its own column.

Avoid this: Change to:

Animal Animal Group

Control1 1 0
Control2 2 0
Experiment1 3 1
Experiment2 4 1

* Do not combine variables in one column

* It is recommended to use 0/1 for 2 groups with 0 as a reference group.

6. All data for a project should be in one spreadsheet. Do not include graphs or
summary statistics in the spreadsheet.

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 7. Examample: Each patient should be entered on a single line or row. Do not
copy a patient’s information to another row to perform subgroup analysis.

8. However when data are repeatedly collected over a patient, it’s recommended
to have patient-day observation on a simple line to ease data management.
SPSS has a nice feature to convert from the longitudinal format to horizontal
format. When the number of repeats are few 2 or 3, horizontal format may be
preferred for simplicity.

Longitudinal data entry Horizontal data entry

Date ID SYSBP ID SYSBP1 SYSBP2 SYSBP3

1/2/2005 1 130 1 130 120 120
1/3/2005 1 120 2 110 140
1/4/2005 1 120
3/1/2005 2 110
3/2/2005 2 140

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 9. For yes/no questions, enter “0” for no and “1” for yes. Do not leave blanks
for no. Do not enter “?”, “*”, or “NA” for missing data because this indicates to
the statistical program than the variable is a string variable. String variables
cannot be used for any arithmetic computation.

10. Put ordinal variables into one column if they are mutually exclusive.

Avoid: Preferred:

Pain Pain
Mild Moderate Severe
1 0 0 1
0 1 0 2
0 0 1 3

11. Do not make columns wider then 8 characters, unless absolutely essential.

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 Data Entry (Time in SPSS)
In SPSS, open Variable View, Click Type for the variable you want to
Assign date format, click on Date, and select a format of your choice.

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 Importing data from Excel spreadsheet into SPSS.

In SPSS, go to:
File, Open, Data
Select Type of file (for example, Excel) you want to open
Select File name you want to open

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 Importing data from SPSS to Excel.
In SPSS, go to:
Data, Save as,
Select Type of file (for example, Excel) you want to save into
Give File name you want to save into

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 Recoding existing variables
We want to use numeric coding for group instead of A and B.
Old New

ID Group Group

1 A 0
2 A 0
3 B 1
4 B 1

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 Recoding existing variables
From SPSS dialog box, go to:
Transform
Recode
Into Same variables

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 Recoding existing variables

1. Select Group from the variable box into String Variables box
2. Click on Old and new Values to proceed

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 Recoding existing variables
1. Type the old value and the new value you want to convert into
2. Click on Add (To remove, or change, click on Change or Remove)
3. Type all values in the Old  New box, then click Continue
4. Click OK to execute the commands.

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 Creating a new variable for Diastolic blood pressure (DiasBP):

In SPSS, go to Variable View,

Then type DiasBP at the last row under Name

Go back to Data View and directly type diastolic blood pressure to separate from
SysBP. For ease of data entry, you can move DiasBP right after SysBP. Now also
edit sysBP.
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 Data Labeling
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 Data Labeling

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 Data Labeling
Variable Formatting

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 Data Labeling
Specifying missing values

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 Data Labeling
Measurement category

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 Slide 25 of 93

Analyse using Graphical Presentation

AQ054-3-M-Statistical Decision Making Introduction to SPSS

 Summary of Main Teaching Points

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 Question and Answer Session

Q&A

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 What we will cover next

Descriptive Statistics

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