College of Nursing

Post graduate
Biostatistics

ORGANIZING AND PRESENTING DATA

Dr. Nazar A. Mahmood

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o Once you have designed a study and collected data, the next

step is to decide how to present the collected data.

o Descriptive statistics are used to describe and summarize data

to make them more meaningful.

o Descriptive statistics is a set of tools and techniques used to

organize, describe, and summarize numerically the

characteristics of samples, populations, or related collection of

information; this collection is sometimes called as data set or

just data.
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 The ordered array
• It is the first step in the process of data organization.

• An ordered array is a listing of values of a collection in

order of magnitude from the smallest value to the
largest value.

• Advantages:

It enables one to determine quickly the value of the

smallest measurement, and the value of the largest
measurement, and enable one to determine roughly the
proportion of people lying below or above certain
value. 3
In general, descriptive statistics is classified into the

following four categories:

1. Measures to condense data

2. Measures of central tendency

3. Measures of variability

4. Measures of relationships

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Measures to Condense Data
When the collected data size is very large, it is necessary
to summarize and make it compact for easy
understanding. Usually, quantitative data are condensed.
The various measures used to condense data
are as follows:
1. Frequency distribution
2. Graphic representation
3. Percentages

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Tabulation
• Tabulation or classification is the process by which the data are
systematically organized and recorded, to make it easy for
analysis and interpretation.
• Logical presentation of numeric data in rows and columns to
facilitate comparison and statistical analysis.
• It may be complex, double or simple depending upon the nature
of categorisation.
• Objectives:
1. To Simplify the Complex Data.
2. To Bring Out Essential Features of the Data
3. To Facilitate Comparison.
4. To Facilitate Statistical Analysis.
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5. Saving of Space.
1. Frequency distribution:

• Frequency distribution is the first and most common

choice, which shows the frequency of each measure of a
variable.

• Frequency distributions is created by gathering all the

responses collected from a sample of variables into a
table.

• Frequencies are obtained by counting the occurrence of

values or scores represented in the data.

• Frequency distribution is appropriate for reporting all level

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of data (nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio).
Summarizing qualitative data (Frequencies).
o It is counting the number of observations in each category. These
counts are called frequencies.

o They are often presented as relative percentages of the total numbers.

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Summarizing quantitative data (Frequencies).

o It is a tabulation of the values that one or more variables take in a

sample.

o Each entry in the table contains the frequency or count of the

occurrences of values within a particular group or interval, and in this
way the table summarizes the distribution of values in the sample.

o If the range of scores in a frequency distribution is small, say less than

20, each score may be listed individually (Ungrouped)

o Class intervals: (Grouped) When the range of scores is large, it may

be helpful to group the scores before counting frequencies

o The main purpose in grouping data now is summarization

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Example 1: Frequency distribution (Ungrouped):

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Example 2: Frequency distribution (Grouped):

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o Relative frequency of an observation, which is just the
number of times a particular observation occurs divided by
the total number of observations.

o the proportion, rather than the number, of values falling

within a particular class interval.

o Cumulative frequency can be defined as the sum of all

previous frequencies up to the current point.

o Cumulative frequency simply lists the number of

observations with a value less than the maximum value of
the variable interval.
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The steps to creating a frequency distribution table are:

1. It must be determined which class intervals will be used.

2. The data are sorted into the class intervals to obtain the raw

frequencies of each class interval.

3. The relative frequency of each class interval is computed.

4. The cumulative relative frequency of values along the class

intervals is computed.

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For example,
in an objective test for a class of 50 students, the maximum score assigned is
100. The scores obtained by the students fall in the range of 0 to 98. The raw
data arranged from lower to higher scores are shown below:

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 Class intervals

Sturge’s rule (formula): K = 1 + 3.322 (log10 n)

K = No. of class intervals. n = sample size.

The class interval width is given by:

Where R (the range), and k No. of class

intervals

• Note that this rule is not final, you can increase or decrease the No. of
class intervals for convenience and clear presentation. 16
Age groups Frequency Cumulative frequency Percentages %

10-19 3 3 6

20-29 6 9 12

30-39 10 19 20

40-49 15 34 30

50-59 8 42 16

60-69 5 47 10

70-79 3 50 6

Grand Total 50 100

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Notes on class intervals:

o There must be no overlapping between these intervals, like 0-

5, 5-10, 10-15, ..etc

o Too few & too many intervals are undesirable, because, too few

intervals is losing information while too many intervals is

cancelling the objective of summarization.

o The best guide to this, as well as to other decisions to be made

in grouping data, is your knowledge of the data.

o A commonly followed rule of thumb states that there should be

no fewer than 5 intervals and no more than 15. 18

ORGANIZING AND PRESENTING DATA

Graphic Presentation

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• A graph is a pictorial representation of data. In fact, it is a
mathematical picture which presents the data in a visual
mode.
• It is a much better way of communicating information in
comparison with numerical data. One sees them in
newspapers, magazines, journals and television due to
their power of communicating information more
effectively.
• Graphics are used to represent relationships between
different variables, groups or classes. It is basically used
to explain how the value of one variable or group
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changes with the change in the related variable or group.

Types of Graph
There are many types of graphs available, but six types of
graph, namely;
1. Bar diagram
2. Pie charts (Pie graphs)
3. Histogram
4. Frequency polygon
5. Time series graphs
6. Scatter plot
1. Bar Chart or Graph

• Bar charts are used to display variables of a nominal

scale and sometimes to display ordinal variables when

the ordinal variable has only a few categories.

• The bar graph is especially useful when the categories of

the variables are qualitative rather than numerical.

• It cannot be used for continuous variables.

• Bar graphs can be created vertically or horizontally.

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Example 1: Horizontal Bar Graph
Example 1: Vertical Bar Graph

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2. Pie chart
It is another option for displaying nominal data. In this type of
graph, a large circle (the pie) is divided into smaller pieces, and
each piece illustrates a percentage of the whole.

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Histogram

• A histogram is a type of bar chart.

• Histograms often have no spaces between the bars because

these charts are most frequently used to display either ordinal

data or continuous data.

• (ordinal data has categories that show a ranked difference;

continuous data has an infinite number of possible, in-

between measures.) 28
Histogram with Ordinal data Histogram with Ratio

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 How to make histogram

 Divide range of data into intervals (bins) of equal widths

 Count the number of observations in each class

 Draw the histogram

 Label scales

Example:

The weights (gm) of 30 mice are given below. Display the data
with a frequency distribution using seven classes then draw a
histogram.

143 151 136 127 132 132 126 138 119 104

113 90 126 123 121 133 104 99 112 129

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 10
9
9
8
7
6 6
frequency

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5
4
4
3
3
2
1 1
1
0
85-94 95-104 105-114 115-124 125-134 135-144 145-154
weight (gm)

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Frequency Polygon

• A frequency polygon is a graph of frequency distribution.

• It represents the frequency distribution of ordinal, interval, or

ratio data

• There are actually two ways of drawing a frequency polygon:

1. By first drawing a histogram for the data

2. Direct construction

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1. Frequency Polygon (Drawing a histogram first).

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2. Frequency Polygon (Direct construction).

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 Time series graph (Line Graph)

A time series graph displays data that are observed over a given 
period of time.

From the graph, one can analyze the behavior of the data over 
time.

Example: Obesity rates among males and females

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 35

30

25

20
Males
15 Females

10

0
1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

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Scatterplots

Scatterplots are a little different from the previously discussed

graphs in that each point represents how one subject relates to
two variables.

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3- Percentages

➢ A percentage is a statistic that represents the

proportion of a subgroup to a total group, expressed

as a percentage ranging from 0 to 100.

➢ A percentage is the number of parts per 100 that a

certain portion of the whole represents.

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➢ To calculate a percentage, divide the partial number of items by

the total number of items, and then multiply that quantity by

100.

➢ For example, what if that same nurse manager asked you, “What

percentage of our patients do those 18 represent?” You could do

the simple calculation shown in below:

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