Samara University

College of Medicine and Health Sciences

Department of Public Health

By : Beminet L. (BSc in PH, MPH in Biostatistics)

E-mail: beminetlemma1915@gmail.com

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Course contents
Lecture 1: Introduction to Statistics/Biostatistics
Lecture 2: Descriptive Statistics
Lecture 3: Summarizations of data
Lecture 4:Sampling techniques and Sample size determination
Lecture 5: Probability & Probability distribution
Lecture 6: Inferential statistics
Lecture 7:Introduction to data Analysis
7.1 Categorical Data Analysis(Association, Logistic regressions)
7.2 Continuous Data Analysis(Correlation, Linear regression)

2
Reference

1. Bland, Martin: Introduction to Medical

Statistics, An, 3rd Edition, St George's
Hospital Medical School, London

2. Wayne W. Daniel: A Foundation for

Analysis in the Health Sciences 8th edition,
George State University

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 Chapter-one

Introduction to Biostatistics

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Objectives

At the end of this chapter ,the student should be able to

 Define Statistics /Biostatistics

 Identify the types of Biostatistics
 Identify the types of variables
 Describes and illustrate the scales of measurement
 Identify source of data
 Describe the different methods of data collection
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Brainstorming questions

• What is Statistics ?

• What is Biostatistics ?

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Definition cont...
 The term statistics is used to mean either statistical
methods or statistical data

 Statistical methods: Refers body of methods used

for collecting, organizing, summarizing, analysing
and interpreting numerical data for understanding a
phenomenon and making a wise decisions

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Definition cont...
 Statistical data: it refers to numerical descriptions of
things.

 These descriptions may take the form of counts or

measurements.

 e.g. statistics of malaria cases in one of malaria

detection and treatment posts of Ethiopia include
fever cases, number of positives obtained, sex and age
distribution of positive cases, etc.

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Definitions of Statistics/ Biostatistics

 Statistics: is a field of study concerned with (1) the

collection, organization, summarization, and
analysis of data, and (2) the drawing of inference
about a body of data when only a part of the data is
observed.

 Biostatistics: The application of statistical methods

to the fields of biological and health sciences.

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Definition cont...

 The field of statistics can be employed in many fields

(e.g. education, psychology, business, agriculture,
economics, social, health, etc.)

 When the data being analysed are derived from

biological sciences, medicine or public health we use
the term Biostatistics to distinguish this particular
application of statistical tools and concepts from the
others
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Q#1

Why do we need Biostatistics?

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 Uses of Biostatistics in Health
To Assess health status (risk assessment)
To Provide data processing, organization and analysis
To make Summarization and interpretation of data
To evaluate overall health program
To make Appropriate allocation of limited resource
To measure the magnitudes of association
Strong vs weak association between exposure and
outcome
To assess risk factors
Cause & effect relationship

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 Cont.………..
To Evaluate effect of new vaccine or drug
 What can be concluded if the proportion of people free from
the disease is greater among the vaccinated than the
unvaccinated?
 How effective is the vaccine (drug)?
 Is the effect due to chance or some bias?  needs control
of independent effects

To draw inferences (generalization)

• Based on Information obtained from sample  conclude to
the entire population
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Limitation of statistics

 It deals on aggregates of facts : no

importance to individual items

 Statistical data are only approximately : not

mathematically correct

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Types of Biostatistics

Biostatistics

Descriptive statistics Inferential statistics

Collection Making inference

Organization Hypothesis testing
Summarization Determining
Presentation of data relationship
Making the prediction
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Types of statistics/biostatistics
1- Descriptive statistics
 In descriptive statistics the statistician tries to
describe a situation
 Summarize and organize numerical values or
data in to meaningful forms
 Helps to identify the general features and
trends in a set of data
 By using table, graphs, measure of central
tendency, and measure of dispersion
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Example
• Consider the national census conducted by the
Ethiopian government every 10 years
• Results of this census give you the average age,
income, and other characteristics of the population
• To obtain this information, the Census Bureau
must have some means to collect relevant data
• Once data are collected, the bureau must organize
and summarize them
• Finally, the bureau needs a means of presenting
the data in some meaningful form, such as charts,
graphs, or tables
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Types of statistics
2-Inferential statistics
 It is a set of methods used to make conclusions
(inference) from sample data to population

 Statistical summaries which are common in inferential

statistics:
 Principles of probability,
 Estimation and confidence interval,
 Hypothesis testing, etc
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Cont…
Inferential statistics
Produce statistical inferences about a population
based on information from a sample taken from the
population

Sample Population

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Which one is descriptive statistics
1. Antibiotics reduce the duration of viral
throat infections by 1-2 days.
2. Five percent of women aged 30-49 consult
their GP each year with heavy menstrual
bleeding
3. At our health center, 50 patients were
diagnosed with angina last year

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 Basic terms in biostatistics
 Population: consists of all subjects (human or otherwise)
that are being studied.

 Sample: is a group of subjects selected from a population

 Sampling: is the technique of selecting representative

portion of the entire population

 Census: is the collection of data from every member of the

population
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 Basic Terms in biostatistics
 Parameter: a descriptive measure computed from the data of a
population.
 Represented by Greek letters
 population mean (μ),population standard deviation (δ)
 Statistic: a descriptive measure computed from the data of a
sample.
 Represented by Roman letters
 sample mean ( ), mode , median, SD(S), Variance, etc.
 Data: are observations (measurements or counts) that have been
collected.
 are numbers, numbers contains information and the purpose
of statistics is to determine the nature of this information
 It is the raw material for statistics
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 Variable
 A characteristic which takes different values in different
persons, places, or things.

 Any aspect of an individual or object that is measured (e.g.,

BP) or recorded (e.g., age, sex) and takes any value.

 Variables can be broadly classified into:

 Qualitative or Categorical
 Quantitative or Numerical variables

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 Types of variables

1. Qualitative variable:
 A variable or characteristic which cannot be measured
in quantitative form but can only be identified by name
or categories.
 Non-numerical
 The notion of magnitude is absent
– e.g. Place of birth, Sex, Blood group

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 Types of qualitative variables
A. Nominal variables :
• These groups of variables do not have an order or ranking
in them.
• E.g. Sex: Male, Female

Residence : Urban , Rural

B. Ordinal variables:
• Is a nominal variable, but its different states are ordered
in a meaningful sequence.
• E.g. Anemia status (no anemia, mild, moderate and
sever)
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Types of variable
2. Quantitative variable
Variables that are numerical and can be ordered or
ranked.
E.g. Height, weight, # of children, etc.
Has the notion of magnitude.
Quantitative variables can be further classified
into two groups: discrete and continuous.

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Types of variable
Discrete variables: assume values that can be counted

 It can only have a limited number of values.

 Characterized by gaps or interruptions in the values

 The values aren’t just labels, but are actual measurable quantities.

 Can assume only whole numbers, examples

• # of bacterial colonies on a plate

• # of RHD cases in the hospital
• # of accidents in a time period
• # of malaria relapse in a time period
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Types of variable
Continuous variables: can assume an infinite number of
values between any two specific values.

• They are obtained by measuring and often include

fractions and decimals.

It can have an infinite number of possible values

Can take any value within a defined range

Does not possess the gaps or interruptions

• Examples – Age, height, weight, time

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Cont…

Class exercise: What type of variable?

1. systolic blood pressure
2. gender
3. parasite burden (low, med, high)
4. water source (well, piped mains or river)
5. death yes/no
6. malaria treated or not
7. birth weight

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Types of variables (independent Vs dependent)

Independent variables
• It is a variable that stands alone and isn’t changed
by the other variables we are trying to measure.
• Example: someone’s age might be an independent
variable
• Other factors (such as nutritional status and
academic performance) aren’t going to change a
person’s age

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Independent variables
• Presumed cause in a cause-effect relationship

• Presumed to have an effect on another variable

• Investigator manipulates one variable and measures effect of that

manipulation on another variable

 Manipulated variables are independent

 Explain the response variable

 Variable that is different between groups compared

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Independent Variables cont’d…
Terminology
• Independent
• Input
• Covariate
• Explanatory
• Predictor
• Exogenous
• Manipulated
• Treatment

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 Independent Variables: Example
• The investigators want to determine how often an exercise must be done to prevent
the progress from prediabetes to diabetes.

• These investigators decided to compare 3 groups, one group participate in a set

of specific exercises 4 times per week; a second group would do the same
exercises, but only twice per week, and a control group would participate in
stretching exercises that would have no impact on the progress

• The variable that differs between these 3 groups that are compared is an
Independent Variable

• This particular independent variable has 3 LEVELS of the SINGLE independent

variable

• In this example: type of exercise.

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Independent Variables: Example

• Non-experimental studies also have independent variables,

• But they may not be determined or manipulated by
investigators
• E.g. Effect of blood group on the risk of developing gastric
cancer
• Effect of age on perioperative anxiety

• Independent variables are

• Blood group, and age
• Dependent variables
• gastric cancer and perioperative anxiety

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Types of variables cont…
Dependent variable

• Depends on the independent variable

• Variable that the researcher is usually most interested in

understanding and possibly interested in predicting

• May be influenced by manipulation of independent variable

 Is the variable that is studied to see if it has changed
significantly due to the manipulation of the independent
variable.

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Dependent Variables cont…

Terminologies Dependent variable

• Dependent • E.g. Nutritional status
• Outcome Independent variables
• Effect • E.g. age, sex, income,
• Output educational level
• Response

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Exercise
 In a study to determine whether surgery or
chemotherapy results in higher survival rates for
a certain type of cancer

 Which one is the explanatory variable and

which one is the response variable?

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 Scales of measurement

• Measurement: a procedure where qualities or quantities

assigned to characteristics of subjects, objects or events
• Clearly not all measurements are the same
• Measuring an individuals weight is qualitatively different
from measuring their response to some treatment on a
three category of scale, “improved”, “stable”, “not
improved”
• Measuring scales are different according to the degree of
precision involved
• There are four types of scales of measurement
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 Types of Scales of measurements

1. Nominal
2. Ordinal
3. Interval
4. Ratio

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Nominal scale
 The simplest type of data, in which the values fall
into unordered categories
 No ranking or order can be placed on the data
 Uses names, labels, or symbols to assign each
measurement.
 Examples: Blood type, sex, race, marital status,
etc.
 The mode is the only appropriate measure of central
tendency
 The obvious descriptive summary measure is the
proportion or percentage
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Ordinal scale
• Classifies data into categories that can be ranked; however,
precise differences between the ranks do not exist.

 They have a natural ordering

 The spaces or intervals between the categories are not

necessarily equal.

 medians, quartiles and percentiles are the most appropriate

measures of centre and spread

 E.g.: Patient status, cancer stages, Likert scales etc.

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Interval scale
Ranks data, and precise differences between units of measure do
exist; however, there is no meaningful zero.
Measured on a continuum and differences between any two
numbers on a scale are of known size.
 Example: Temp. in oC on 4 consecutive days
Days: A B C D
Temp. oc: 45 50 55 60
 For these data, not only is day A with 45 o cooler than day D
with 60o, but is 15o cooler.
 It has no true zero point
 “0” is arbitrarily chosen and doesn’t reflect the absence of temp.
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 Ratio scale
Measurement begins at a true zero point
Examples: Height, age, weight, BP, etc.
Note on meaningfulness of “ratio”
A 80 kg is two times as heavy as someone who weighs 40
kg
This is true even if weight had been measured in other
measurements
For interval or ratio data, the mean and standard deviation
are appropriate methods of summarization

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Summary of scales of measurement

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 Degree of precision in measuring
Nominal

Ordinal

Interval

Ratio

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Exercise: Consider the following Scales of measurement
(types of data)
1. Blood group
2. Temperature (Celsius)
3. Sex
4. Job satisfaction index (1-5)
5. Number of heart attack
6. Calendar year
7. Serum uric acid (mg/100ml)
8. Number of cases of each reportable disease reported by a
health worker
9. The average weight gain of 6 1-year old dogs with a special
diet supplement was 950 grams last month.
10. Injury severity (a score between 1and 3 is allocated depending
on the severity) – scores 1 and 3 show mild and very severe
respectively.
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 Chapter 2

Methods of Data Collection, Organization and

Presentation

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