COMMUNITY AND PUBLIC HEALTH FOR MEDICAL LABORATORY SCIENCE (LECTURE)

VARIABLE
- statistics as applied to the biological sciences, - measurement of a characteristic
health, and medicine - any characteristic, number, or quantity that can
- Application of statistical techniques that are be measured or counted
associated to health-related topics like - data that we gather and collect
epidemiology, medicine, biology, and public
health Types of Variables
➢ Qualitative
STATISTICS o variables whose categories are simply
used as labels to distinguish one group
- science that deals with the methods of
from another
collection, organization, analysis and
o numerical representation of the
interpretation and presentation of information
categories is for labeling/coding and
that can be stated numerically
NOT for comparison
- by applying statistical methods, it makes the
o sex, religion, place of residence, disease
observation to be more factual and evidence-
status
based
➢ Quantitative
- decision-making became more easier and
o values indicate a quantity, amount, or
objective
numeration and can be expressed
- can be a statistical method or statistical data
numerically
o values can be arranged according to
Statistical Method
magnitude (scope)
- used for collecting, organizing, analyzing, and o they are being computed for comparison
interpreting numerical data for understanding a o age, height, weight, blood pressure
phenomenon (an observable fact or event) or o Discrete – integral whole numbers
making wise decisions o Continuous – can attain any value
- 2 types of statistical method including fractions and decimals
o Descriptive statistics
▪ Describes and summarizes the Levels of Measurements
data
➢ Nominal
▪ see the trend or feature of the
o classificatory scale where the categories
data
are used as labels only
▪ mean, median, range, variance,
o sex, race, blood group, patient ID
standard deviation, etc.
➢ Ordinal
o Inferential statistics
o used for categories which can be
▪ Used to make predictions,
ordered or ranked
hypothesis, probabilities, or
o likert scale, psychosocial scale
conclusions
➢ Interval
▪ Uses probability sampling
o same characteristics as ordinal
▪ t-test, z-test, etc.
o zero point is arbitrary and does not
mean absence of the characteristic
Statistical Data
o the difference between the two value is
- numerical descriptions of things meaningful
- counts or measurements o has no true zero
- example: number of positive cases of HIV in the o temperature, IQ
Philippines ➢ Ratio
o same characteristics as ordinal
USES OF STATISTICS ON PUBLIC HEALTH o a meaningful zero point exist
• Problems of estimates (approximation) o has true zero
• Problems of comparison (compare a data set; o weight, BP, height, doctor visits
uses inferential statistics)
• Health need identification (needs)
• Analysis of problem and trends (present health
- characteristic: SYSTEMATIC
issues)
• Epidemiologic evaluation (evaluate)
Methods of Data Collection
• Program planning (measures the effectiveness)
➢ Observation
• Budget preparation and justification (allocation
o involves systematically selecting,
of budget and funds)
watching and recoding behaviors of
• Administrative decision-making (easier decision-
people or other phenomena and aspects
making using statistics)
of the setting in which they occur
• Health education (general knowledge of the
o direct or with tools
community)
o advantage: gives relatively more
accurate data on behavior and activities
 COMMUNITY AND PUBLIC HEALTH FOR MEDICAL LABORATORY SCIENCE (LECTURE)

o disadvantage: prone to bias and needs ▪ Single

more resources ▪ Married/living together
➢ Face-to-face and self-administered interviews ▪ Separated/divorced/widowed
o most commonly used research data
collection techniques
o can be conducted easily and get the data
easily TABULATION
➢ Postal or mail method and telephone - It refers to the arrangement of any data in an
interviews orderly sequence, so that they can be presented
o The questionnaire or survey form can be concisely and compactly and so that they can be
mailed to the respondent, then their understood easily.
answers can be read out over the phone
o Google forms Types of data for Tabulation
➢ Records review ➢ Frequency distribution data
o Clinical and other personal records, o Data are grouped according to some
death certificates, published mortality scale of classification, where the sum of
statistics, census publications the entries is equal to the total samples
o To compare the present and previous o The figures may either be in equal
data numbers, in percent or in both.
➢ Focus group discussions (FGD) o The scales used may be qualitative,
o Applied to get more in-depth quantitative or both.
information about perceptions, insights, o A frequency distribution shows the
beliefs, experiences, and attitudes number of observations falling into each
o Fall under the qualitative data of several ranges of values.
(descriptive analysis) o Frequency distributions are portrayed as
frequency, tables, histograms, or
Problems encountered in Data Collection polygons.
• Language barriers ➢ Correlation data
• Lack of adequate time o used to compare two or more
• Expense frequencies
• Inadequately trained and experienced staff ➢ Time series data
• cultural norms o some variable changes over a period of
• bias time are the one being presented

Categories of Data Collection Construction of Table

➢ Primary 1. Tables should be as simple as possible.
o collected by the investigator himself for 2. Tables should be self-explanatory.
the purpose of a specific inquiry or study • Title: clear (answers: what? when?
o Firsthand information (direct, actual, where? how it is classified?) and be
and personally acquired) obtained by placed above the table.
the investigator • Each row and column: labelled
o examples: interview, observation • Numerical entities of zero: explicitly
➢ Secondary written rather than indicated by a dash
o investigator uses data, which have (reserved for missing or unobserved
already been collected by others data)
o examples: journals, reports, government • Totals: shown either in the top row and
publications, publications of the first column or in the last row and
professionals and research organizations last column
3. If data are not original, their source should be
Types of Questions given in a footnote.
➢ Open-ended
o permit free responses that should be Parts of a Table
recorded in the respondent’s own words ➢ Title – it should state the objective of the table.
o example: “Can you describe exactly what It should clearly, briefly, and comprehensively
the traditional birth attendant did when what the figures in the body of the table stand
your labor started?” for. How the data are classified, where and when
o can get information that are not familiar obtained
o many possible answer ➢ Stubs – indicate the basis of classification of the
➢ Closed questions rows or horizontal series of figures
o offer a list of possible options or answers ➢ Column headings – indicate the basis of
from which the respondents must classification of the columns or vertical series of
choose figures.
o useful if the range of possible responses ➢ Body of the table – this is made up of the figures
is known. filling the cells or compartments brought about
o Has definite answer by the coordinates of rows and columns
o example: “What is your marital status?
 COMMUNITY AND PUBLIC HEALTH FOR MEDICAL LABORATORY SCIENCE (LECTURE)

➢ Marginal Totals – refer to the column totals and Different Types of Graphs
row totals ➢ Line graphs
➢ Footnote – indicate the source of information o Used to graph time series data depict
trends or changes with time with respect
to some other variables

GRAPHING
- The purpose is to convey a simpler idea of what ➢ Histogram
the statistical table contains o used to graph continuous variables. A
- Statistical graph either a series of lines joined graphical representation
together, or bars or enclosed areas, drawn to o similar to a bar chart in structure, that
represent certain statistical information under organizes a group of data points into
consideration. user-specified ranges.
- Intended for comparison, to show correlation, or o The histogram condenses a data series
simply for the purpose of data presentation into an easily interpreted visual by taking
- Primary tools for presentation and analysis. many data points and grouping them
into logical ranges or bins
Parts of a Graph
➢ Title – indicate clearly and briefly what the
figures in the body of the graph stand for, how
the data were classified, and where and when
obtained. This is placed at the bottom of the
graph, preceded by number for easy reference.
➢ Axis – a graph has 2 axes, the vertical and the
horizontal:
o Each represents separate scales of
classification corresponding to the row
and column headings of the table being
graphically presented.
o One of the axes is always quantitative
scale while the other is either qualitative ➢ Frequency Polygon
or quantitative scales. o Used to graph continuous variables
➢ Legend – this is needed when one is drawing o joined midpoints of the tops of the
more than one graph in a graphing space. This adjacent rectangles of the histogram
clarifies to what particular item each of the graph with line segments
refers. It is placed either at the bottom of the
graph or as close as possible to the figures being
identified.
➢ Body of the graph – these are the lines, bars or
figures drawn within the graphing space.

➢ Bar or stick graph

o used to graph qualitative variables and
discontinuous variables (no in-between
categories) of the quantitative variety
o height or length of each
o bar indicates the size (frequency) of the
figure represented
 COMMUNITY AND PUBLIC HEALTH FOR MEDICAL LABORATORY SCIENCE (LECTURE)

▪ Simple Bar Graph ➢ Scatter point diagram

o used to show relationship of
simultaneous measurement
o relationship between the axis with one
variable

▪ Multiple Bar Graph

• figures are shown as
separate bars adjoining
each other
• height of each bar
represents the actual
value of the component
figure
• depicts distributional
pattern of more than
one variable

▪ Component Bar Graph

• bars are sub-divided
into component parts of
the figure
• constructed when each
total is built up from two
or more component
figures

➢ Pictorial diagram / Pie Chart

o usually in the form of rectangles, square
or circles (pies), used to depict the
distribution of a whole with different
segments representing different
frequencies