INTRODUCTION OF
MEDICAL STATISTICS
DEFINATION OF MEDICAL STATISTICS-
• It is the science of summarizing, collecting, presenting, analyzing
and interpreting the data in medical approach.
• It has a main role in medical investigations.
• Statisticians help researchers design studies, analyze data from
medical experiments, decide what data to collect, help interpret the
results of the analyses, and collaborate in writing articles to describe
the results of medical research.
BIOSTATISTICS
• Biostatistics helps researchers make sense of the data collected to
decide whether a treatment is working or to find factors that contribute
to diseases.
• Health Statistics is application of statistical methods in entire gamut of
health sciences, including curative, promotive and preventive sciences.
• Vital statistics is the application of statistical methods in demography
pertaining to vital events of birth, marriage and deaths.
COMMON STATISTICAL TERMS
• Variable-A characteristic that takes on different values in different persons,
places or things. e.g.- height, weight, blood pressure, age etc.
It is also defined as quantity that varies within limits. It is denoted by “X”
• Constant-Quantities that do not vary such as pi= 3.141 & e=2.718
• In biostatistics mean, standard deviation, standard error, correlation coefficient
and proportion of a particular population are considered as constant.
• Observation- An event and its measurement is called observation.
• Observational unit- The source that gives observations is called
observational unit. E.g.- object, person.
• Data- A set of values recorded on one or more observational units.
• Population- It is an entire group of people or study element- persons,
things or measurement for which we have an interest at a particular
time.
• Types of population-
Finite- fixed number of values.
Infinite- endless succession of values.
• Sampling unit- Each member of population is
called sampling unit.
• Sample- It is group of sampling units that form part of population, generally
selected so as to be representative of population whose variables are under
study.
• Parameter- It is a summary value or constant of
a variable that describes the sample such as its mean, standard
deviation, standard error, proportions etc.
• This value is calculated from the sample and is often
applied to population but may or may not be valid estimate
of population.
IMPORTANCE OF STATISTICS-
• Presents fact in a definite form.
• Simplifies mass of figures.
• Facilitates comparison.
• Helps in formulating and testing of hypothesis.
• Helps in prediction. Also helps in formulation of suitable policies in public
health.
• Helps in finding probability of happening.
• Finding efficacy of new drugs and their comparison.
• Examination and verification of principles.
• Normal limits of various pathological and physiological conditions.
• “Cause and Effect” can be tested. and find association between two attributes.
• Epidemiological studies can be interpreted.
Why we need to study statistics ?
Three reasons :
1.Basic requirement of medical research.
2.Update your medical knowledge.
3.Data management and treatment.
DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS
• DATA- Data may be defined as a representation of facts or concepts or
instructions in a formalized manner, suitable for communication,
interpretation or processing by manual or electronic means.
• Any type of Information associated with any real number is known as
data.
QUALITATIVE VS QUANTITATIVE DATA
• Qualitative data( Attributes):
Measuring a characteristic for which there is no natural numeric scale.
• (Example: Gender, eye color, socio-economic status, disease severity)
• Quantitative data(Variables):
There is a natural numeric scale.
• (Example: Age, height, weight, BP, Hb level, Sugar level)
VARIABLES
• The characteristic or the trait in the behavioral science which can be
quantified is termed as variable.
• Variables can be classified into two categories:
1. Continuous variables.
2. Discrete variable
1. Continuous variables are those for which fractional value
exists and have meaning e.g. age, weight, achievement,
where 14.5 years, 62.75 kgs and 45.50 scores or any other
fractional of a whole unit is logical and measurable within
the precision of the instrument used.
2. Discrete variables are those on the other hand, which exist
only in units not the fractional value (usually units of one)
e.g. 30 boys, 25 girls, 40 Indians and 24 Americans.
CENTRAL TENDENCY
• It is defined as the central value which represents the whole group . Also describe as the
average or common score of a group of scores.
• Common measures of central tendency includes
• Mean
• Median
• Mode
ARITHMETIC MEAN OR SIMPLE MEAN
• It is the simplest but most useful measure of central
tendency. It is nothing but’ the ‘average’ which we
compute in our High School Arithmetic and therefore
can be easily defined as the sum of all the values of the
items in a series divided by the number of items.
