Week04: Learning from Data

What are/is Statistics?

1. Familiar (plural) meaning = facts and figures

What are/is Statistics?

What are/is Statistics?

Source: Silver, Nate. Post-Midterm Ratings Dont Predict Re-election Chances,

New York Times (1/5/11)

What are/is Statistics?

http://sda.berkeley.edu/GSS

Source: 1972-2008 General Social Survey (GSS)

What are/is Statistics?

2. Academic (singular) meaning =
collecting, organizing, interpreting and reporting

Source: OECD Health Data (2005)

What are/is Statistics?

1657: Christiaan Huygens publishes first printed work on games of chance
(probability = first main historical line of modern statistics)
1662: John Graunts Natural and Political Observations Made Upon the Bills of Mortality
(analysis of social data = second main historical line of modern statistics)
1665: Sir William Petty (father of econometrics) publishes first known national
income estimates.
1693: Edmund Halley produces first correct life table (showing link between age & death)
1790: First decennial U.S. Census (start of oldest periodic continuous census)
1828: Adolphe Quetelet publishes first general statistics handbook in Belgium
1854: John Snow shows link between contaminated water and London cholera deaths
1837-1880: William Farr develops the field of vital statistics
1880s-1940s: Galton, Pearson, Wright, Spearman, Hotelling, Wilks & Neyman work on
mathematics of evolution, heredity and psychology enriches statistics

What are/is Statistics?

Collecting sample data to answer questions of interest
(Part I of course)
Describing or summarizing sample data (Part II of course)
Inferring (making decisions or predictions for a
population ) from sample data (Part III of course)

Why Study Statistics?

1. Objectivity thought to be captured best by
random samples of statistical (quantitative) data
is highly and widely valued (Porter 1995, p. 3)

When do you find it difficult to be objective?

Why do lawyers ask if jury members can be

impartial?

Are scientists always objective?

Why Study Statistics?

2. Real world relevance: Results generated by
statistical analysis reflecting a population average
(rather than one or few personal stories) are
embraced by businesses for industrial quality
control, employed by quantitativelyquantitatively-oriented
researchers, and enshrined by public policy
experts as most representative of population
behavior and health (Porter 1986, p. 3).

Sociologists Using Econometrics

Source: Cohen (01/18/10

New York Times, C1, C8)

Learning about a Population

from a Sample
1.

We typically collect data from individuals in a

household, or telephone, sample survey to obtain
information about a population (which we
cannot observe due to cost and other
constraints).

2.

2001 Los Angeles County Mexican Immigrant

Legal Status Survey (LAC(LAC-MILSS) and 2007
Boston Metropolitan Immigrant Health & Legal
Status Survey (BM
(BM--IHLSS), & 2012 L.A. County
Mexican Immigrant Health & Legal Status Survey

30 Years of Legal Status Sample Surveys

1980-1981 Los Angeles County Parents Survey (LACPS)

19801988 National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS)
1994/2001 L.A. County Mexican Immigrant Legal Status Survey (LAC(LAC-MILSS)
1996 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP)
1996--1997 Hispanic Immigrant Health Care Access Survey (HIHCAS)
1996
1999--2000 L.A.1999
L.A.-NYC Immigrant Survey (LANYCIS)
1999 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS)
2000--2001 L.A. Family and Neighborhood Survey (LAFANS)
2000
2004 Mexican Immigrant Migration and Mobility Statusu (MIMMS)
2005 Chicago Metro Mexican
Mexican--origin Population Study
2007 Boston Metro Immigrant Health & Legal Status Survey (BM
(BM--IHLSS)
2012 L.A. County Mexican Immigrant Legal Status Survey (LAC(LAC-MIHLSS)

2007 Boston Metropolitan Immigrant Health

& Legal Status Survey (BM(BM-IHLSS)

Harvard University & UMASS Boston

Enrico Marcelli
Marcelli,, Ph.D., Principal Investigator
Gary Bennett, Ph.D., Co
Co--Principal Investigator
Howard Koh
Koh,, Ph.D., Co
Co--Principal Investigator
Phillip Granberry,
Granberry, Ph.D., Project Manager (BM
(BM--IHLSS)
Louisa Holmes, Project Manager (BM(BM-IHLSS)
Orfeu Buxton,
Buxton Ph
Ph.D.,
D Consultant
Anthony Roman, MA, Consultant
Jonathan Winickoff
Winickoff,, Ph.D., Consultant

Community Partners
Fausto de Rocha, Executive Director, Brazilian Immigrant Center
Magalis Troncoso,
Troncoso, Executive Director, Dominican Development Center

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, NCI, UMASS Boston, & Blue Cross Blue
Shield Foundation of Massachusetts

2007 BMBM-IHLSS Data

Two systematic blockblock-level probability household samples of 307
foreign-born Brazilian adults (and 120 of their children) and 299
foreignDominican adults (and 74 of their children) residing in the BCQBCQMSA

Data collected between JJune and September,

p
, 2007 byy 50 student
and other foreign
foreign--born interviewers trained at UMASS Boston

Instrument included household roster, adult questionnaire, child

questionnaire, and biological data collection checklist

Five sections of adult questionnaire: (1) Migration experience, (2)

SES, (3) Social Capital, (4) Health, and (5) Socio
Socio--political identity

2007 BMBM-IHLSS Sampling Frame

427 Brazilian Subjects from

73 Neighborhoods in Middlesex County

373 Dominican Subjects from

84 Neighborhoods Located in Essex County

SOCIOGEOGRAPHIC
FACTORS

Sociogeographic Model of Insufficient Sleep

METROPOLITAN AREA
1. Home

3. Neighborhood

Income, Tenure
Sleep partner, Children
Meals, Noise

Population density
Homeownership
Disorder, Noise

4. Civic Groups
Church, PTA, CBO

2. Work/School
Travel and work time
Exposure to smoke, etc.
Co-worker trust

Sports, Music, etc.

Internet-based

INDIVIDUAL-LEVEL
FACTORS

Individual-Sociogeographic Interaction

OUTCOME
Sleep Behavior
Healthy
Diet

5. Socioeconomic Status
Age, sex, skin pigmentation
Time in U.S.A., migration experience
Migrant legal status
Education, Earnings

6. Health

Biomarkers, BMI, Diabetes, etc.

Diet, Physical activity, Sleep Meds
Cigarette smoking, Alcohol

Descriptive vs. Inferential Statistics

Our two BM-IHLSS samples included 299 Dominican and 307 Brazilian adults (or 606
subjects), of which 599 provided responses for questions (variables) included in Marcelli &
Buxtons (2011) study on how several sociogeographic factors influenced whether migrants
slept 7-9 hours on workdays.

FB Brazilian & Dominican adults in our sample were 36 years old on average, 48% were male,
9% had a college degree, 39% were unauthorized to reside in the USA, and about two-thirds
were sleeping a healthy number of hours each workday (sample descriptive statistics).
We are 68% confident that the mean age of all foreign-born Brazilian and Dominican adults
residing in the Boston metropolitan area fell between 24 and 48 years, and that mean skin color
on a scale of 1-10 fell between XX and YY (interval population parameter estimates) . . .

Sleep Duration among ForeignForeign-born Brazilian and

Dominican Migrant Adults in the Boston
Metropolitan Area, 2007 BMBM-IHLSS

Use of Computer Technology and Data Files

(Databases) to Perform Statistical Analysis
There are various competing statistical software packages available on calculators and for
use on other computers (e.g., STATA, SPSS , SAS), but YOU and not software must
decide what kind of statistical tools should be used to answer a specific question. This is
why it is important to understand how to compute means, standard deviations, etc.; as
well as under what condition different software commands are to be used.
Statistical analysis requires that data be organized (structured) electronically and
sequentially in a data file (e.g., Excel spreadsheet) to be analyzed . . .

STATA Computer Code Used for Analysis

Sample Randomness and Size

(Percent Unauthorized Migrant)

Sample Variability: Unauthorized Migrants,

2007 BMBM-IHLSS, Percent