University of Gondar

College of medicine and health science

Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Basic Biostatistics

Wullo S. (MPH)

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 Chapter One
1.1 Introduction to Biostatistics

 Objectives of the chapter

 After completing this chapter, the student will be able to:
– Define Statistics and Biostatistics
– Identify the Branch of biostatistics
– Enumerate the importance and limitations of biostatistics
– Define and Identify the different types of data and
understand why we need to classify variables

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 Definition and classification of Biostatistics

 Statistics is the science of

 collecting
 organizing
 Presenting
 analysing and drawing conclusion (inferences) from
data for the purpose of making decision.

 Biostatistics: The application of statistical methods

to the fields of biological and health sciences.

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 Classification of Biostatistics

Descriptive biostatistics
 A statistical method that is concerned with the collection,
organization, summarization, and analysis of data from a
sample of population.
Inferential biostatistics
 A statistical method that is concerned with the drawing
conclusions/inference about a particular population by
selecting and measuring a random sample from the population.

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 Cont…
B io s t a t is t ic s

D e s c r ip t iv e S t a t is t ic s I n f e r e n t ia l S ta t is t ic s

c o lle c t io n m a k in g in f e r e n c e s
o r g a n iz in g h y p o t h e s is t e s t in g
s u m m a r iz in g d e t e r m i n i n g r e l a t i o n s h ip
p r e s e n t in g o f d a ta m a k in g t h e p re d ic t io n

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 Descriptive Biostatistics

• Some statistical summaries which are especially common in

descriptive analyses are:
 Measures of central tendency
 Measures of dispersion
 Measures of association
 Cross-tabulation, contingency table
 Histogram
 Quantile, Q-Q plot
 Scatter plot
 Box plot

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 Inferential Biostatistics

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 1.2  Stages in statistical investigation
There are five stages or steps in any statistical investigation.
1. Collection of data
 The process of obtaining measurements or counts.
2. Organization of data
 Includes editing, classifying, and tabulating the data
collected.
3. Presentation of data:
 overall view of what the data actually looks like.
 facilitate further statistical analysis.
 Can be done in the form of tables and graphs or diagrams.

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 Cont…
4. Analysis of data
 To dig out useful information for decision making
 It involves extracting relevant information from the data
(like mean, median, mode, range, variance…),
5. Interpretation of data
 Concerned with drawing conclusions from the data
collected and analyzed; and giving meaning to analysis
results.
 A difficult task and requires a high degree of skill and
experience.

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 1.3 Definition of Some Basic terms

Population: is the complete set of possible measurements for which

inferences are to be made.

Census: a complete enumeration of the population. But in most real

problems it cannot be realized, hence we take sample.
Sample: A sample from a population is the set of measurements that are
actually collected in the course of an investigation.
Parameter: Characteristic or measure obtained from a population.

Statistic: A statistic (rather than the filed of Statistics) refers to a

numerical quantity computed from sample data (e.g. the mean, the
median,
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the maximum). 10
 Parameter and statistic

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 Cont...
Sampling: The process or method of sample selection from the
population.
Sample size: The number of elements or observation to be
included in the sample.
variable is a characteristic or attribute that can assume different
values in different persons, places, or things.
Some examples of variables include:
 Diastolic blood pressure,
 heart rate, heights,
 The weights
Data: Refers to a collection of facts, values, observations, or
measurements that the variables can assume.

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 Uses of statistics:

The main function of statistics is to enlarge our knowledge of

complex phenomena. The following are some uses of statistics:
 Estimating unknown population characteristics.
 Testing and formulating of hypothesis.

 Studying the relationship between two or more variable.

 Forecasting future events.
 Measuring the magnitude of variations in data.
 Furnishes a technique of comparison.

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 Limitations of statistics

As a science statistics has its own limitations. The following are

some of the limitations:
 Deals with only quantitative information.

 Deals with only aggregate of facts and not with individual data
items.
 Statistical data are only approximately and not mathematical
correct.
 Statistics can be easily misused and therefore should be used
be experts.
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1.5 Types of Variables and Measurement Scales
A variable is a characteristic or attribute that can assume
different values in different persons, places, or things.
Examples :
 age,
 diastolic blood pressure,
 heart rate,
 the height of adult males,
 the weights of preschool children,
 gender of Biostatistics students,
 marital status of instructors at University of Gondar,
 ethnic group of patients

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A. Depending on the characteristic of the measurement, variable can be:
 Qualitative(Categorical) variable
 A variable or characteristic which cannot be measured in
quantitative form but can only be identified by name or categories,
 for instance place of birth, ethnic group, type of drug, stages of
breast cancer (I, II, III, or IV), degree of pain (minimal, moderate,
sever or unbearable).
 The categories should be clear cut, not overlapping, and cover all the
possibilities. For example, sex (male or female), vital status (alive or
dead), disease stage (depends on disease), ever smoked (yes or no).
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Quantitative(Numerical) variable:
 is one that can be measured and expressed numerically.
Example: survival time, systolic blood pressure, number of
children in a family, height, age, body mass index.
 they can be of two types
Discrete Variables
 Have a set of possible values that is either finite or
countabl infinite.
 The values of a discrete variable are usually whole
numbers.
 Numerical discrete data occur when the observations are
integers that correspond with a count of some sort.

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Some common examples are:

 Number of pregnancies,
 The number of bacteria colonies on a plate,
 The number of cells within a prescribed area upon microscopic
examination,
 The number of heart beats within a specified time interval,
 A mother’s history of numbers of births ( parity) and
pregnancies
 The number of episode of illness a patient experiences during
some time period, etc.

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Continuous Variables

 A continuous variable has a set of possible values including

all values in an interval of the real line.
 No gaps between possible values.
 Each observation theoretically falls somewhere along a
continuum.
Example: body mass index, height, blood pressure, serum
cholesterol level, weight, age etc.

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 Con…
 Observations are not restricted to take on certain numerical
values: Often measurements (e.g., height, weight, age).
 Continuous data are used to report a measurement of the
individual that can take on any value within an acceptable
range.

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 Nominal Scale

Level of measurement which classifies data into mutually exclusive, all

inclusive categories in which no order or ranking can be imposed on
the data.
 Assign subjects to groups or categories

 No order or distance relationship

 No arithmetic origin

 Only count numbers in categories

 Only present percentages of categories
 Chi-square most often used test of statistical significance
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 Nominal Scale

Other Examples
Sex Social status
Marital status Days of the week (months)
Geographic location Seasons
Ethnic group Types of restaurants
Brand choice Religion
Job type : executive, technical, clerical

Coded as “0”
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 Ordinal Scale
Level of measurement which classifies data into categories that can be
ranked. Differences between the ranks do not exist.

Classifies data according to some order or rank

With ordinal data, it is fair to say that one
response is greater or less than another.

E.g. if people were asked to rate the hotness of 3 chili

peppers, a scale of "hot", "hotter" and "hottest"
could be used. Values of "1" for "hot", "2" for
"hotter" and "3" for "hottest" could be assigned.

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 Ordinal Scales

• Arithmetic operations are not applicable but relational

operations are applicable.
• Ordering is the sole property of ordinal scale.
Examples:
Letter grades (A, B, C, D, F).
Rating scales (Excellent, Very good, Good, Fair, poor).
Military status.

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 Interval Scales
• Level of measurement which classifies data that can be ranked
and differences are meaningful. However, there is no meaningful
zero, so ratios are meaningless.
• All arithmetic operations except division are applicable.
• Relational operations are also possible.
Examples:
IQ
Temperature in oF.

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 Interval Scale
Numerically equal distances on the scale represent equal values in
the characteristic being measured. An interval scale contains all the
information of an ordinal scale, but it also allows you to compare the
differences between objects.
assumes that the measurements are made in equal units.
i.e. gaps between whole numbers on the scale are equal.
e.g. Fahrenheit and Celsius temperature scales
an interval scale does not have a true zero.
 e.g. A temperature of "zero" does not mean that there
is no temperature...it is just an arbitrary zero point.
permissible statistics: count/frequencies, mode, median,

mean,
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standard deviation 26
 Ratio Scales

• Level of measurement which classifies data that can be ranked,

differences are meaningful, and there is a true zero. True ratios
exist between the different units of measure.
• All arithmetic and relational operations are applicable.
Examples: Weight
Height
Number of students
Age

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 Primary Scales of Measurement

Nominal Numbers
assigned to 4 81 9

runners

Ordinal Rank order of

winners

Third Second First

Place Place Place
Interval Performance
rating on a 0 to 8.2 9.1 9.6
10 Scale

Ratio Time to finish in

20 seconds 15.2 14.1 13.4
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 STATISTICS
SCALE DESCRIPTIVE INFERENTIAL
Nominal Percentages, Mode Chi-square, Binomial test

Ordinal Percentile, Median Rank-order, Correlation,

ANOVA

Interval Range, Mean, SD Correlations, t-tests, ANOVA

Regression, Factor Analysis

Ratio Geometric Mean, Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Harmonic Mean
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Excercise
Categorize the following variables into nominal, ordinal, interval or
ratio

 Gender Height
 Grade(A, B, C, D and F ) Weight
 Rating scale(poor, good, excelent) Time
 Eye colour Age
 Political affilation IQ
Temprature
 Religious affilation
Salary
 Ranking of tennis players
 Majour field
 Nationality

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