DATA PRESENTATION
Danaida B. Marcelo, MSPH Biostatistics
INTRODUCTION
Methods of data presentation
 Textual
 Use if data is not extensive or complicated to present
 When putting your data into a table would mean creating
a table with two or fewer columns
 Tabular
 To show many and precise numerical values and other
specific data in a small space
Advantage: Displaying more complex data with precision
and flexibility
 Graphical
 To show trends, patterns and relationships across and
between data sets when the general pattern is more
important than the exact data values
Advantage: Simplicity & clarity, memorable visual images
TEXTUAL
REPORTING DESCRIPTIVE/ SUMMARY STATISTICS
Summary statistics includes measures of central tendency, measures
of dispersion as well as percentages.
Means and Standard Deviation
 Mean should always be reported with standard deviation
Example: 14.2 (SD 7.4) ()
14.2 ()
Not clear if number after “±” is SD or SE (standard error)
 If purpose is to describe variation of measurements – use SD
 If purpose is to show precision of the sample mean – use SE
Usually report the SE in the hypothesis testing part or inferential statistics
part of the results (precision of sample estimate)
 Means should be reported to one more decimal place
than the raw data.
 SD should be reported to two more decimal places than
the raw data.
Example: If age is recorded as whole numbers in years
Mean age: 35.2 (SD = 1.54) ()
The average age of students was 19.2 years. (SD = 3.45) ()
Median and Interquartile Range
 Mean is not appropriate if there are extreme values.
 Report Median and Interquartile Range
If you are going to report a measure of central tendency, you should
report the measure of dispersion as well.
 For reporting ranges, they should be reported using the
word “to” to separate the lower and upper limits; this
avoids confusion that occurs with the use of a hyphen or
dash as the separator when either limit is negative.
Format: - 0.5 to 1.5 ()
- 0.5 – 1.5 ()
Percentages
 The base total (denominator) for a percentage should
always be presented.
Example: Out of 100 students, 50% are females.
 Numbers should usually accompany percentages unless
readability is compromised.
 In some journals, percentages in the nearest whole
percent is acceptable (Ex. 25%)
 Some journals require integers or one decimal place for
values under 10%, one decimal place for values over 90%
if their complement is informative, two or more decimal
place only if their range of values is less than 0.1%.
Number of decimal place
 N>100 - report % to more than one decimal place
 20<N report % in whole numbers
 N – report actual data
Example: The total sample consisted of 3150 students, 44.1%
were male and 55.9% were female students and their mean
age was 15.7 years (SD = 1.61) ranging from 13 to 24 years.
This included 1730 (54.9%) from urban schools and 1420
(45.1%) from non-urban schools.
REPORTING STATISTICAL TEST RESULTS
Hypothesis Testing
 Important test results should be reported in full, in either
the text (usually within parentheses), the body of a table
or the footnotes of a table.
 Provide the following:
 Test statistic (reported to two decimal places)
 Degrees of freedom (df) of the chi square used
df of the chi square value in a 2x2 table is 1.
 Actual p-value
These three values are reported so that the readers can check how the data in
the study are computed. It will enable readers to re-compute the data if the
values are given.
P-values – exact probability values up to three or four
decimal places
Not recommended: P < 0.05
Recommended:
 Report the actual p-value.
Example: p-value = 0.025
 If p-value = 0.00002 or p-value = 0.000,
report p-value < 0.001.
 APA Style (Reporting Statistics in APA Style)
Chi-square statistics are reported with degrees of freedom
and sample size in parentheses, the Pearson chi-square value
(rounded to two decimal places) and the significance level.
Example: The percentage of participants that were married
did not differ by gender. 2 (1, N= 90) = 0.89, p = 0.35.
(You might wonder why this is different from the one in the ppt. I got this from the actual
site Doc Marcelo used as her reference: http://my.ilstu.edu/~jhkahn/apastats.html)
 Guidelines from other medical journals - in addition to p-
values, authors should also provide confidence intervals of
the differences or effect measures
Example: On univariate analysis, men with a recorded
diagnosis of depression were three times more likely than
controls of the same age to develop ischemic heart disease
(odds ratio 3.09; 95% confidence interval 1.33 to 7.21; P =
0.009). The risk of ischemic heart disease persisted when
smoking status, diabetes, hypertension and deprivation score
where included in the calculations (adjusted 2.75; 1.13 to
6.69; P = 0.03)
Source: Depression as a risk factor for ischemic heart disease in men:
population based case-control study by Julia Hippisley-Cox et al.
 Confidence intervals
Confidence intervals reveal the precision of an estimate. A
wide confidence interval points to lack of information,
whether the difference is statistically significant or not, and is
a warning against overinterpreting results from small studies.
Source: Statistical guidelines for contributors to medical journals by Douglas G.
Altman et al.
Interval has an upper limit and lower limit.
Place these limits in a line.
 Short line – narrow confidence interval, more precise
 Long line – wider confidence interval.
TABULAR
Designing Tables
Parts of a table
Table number Title
Column headings
Body - cell
Row headings/ Stubs Source of data/ Footnotes
 Tables should be self-explanatory
 Understandable without referring to explanations
 Title (complete and concise)
Can answer the questions what, when and where
 Headings (clear and concise)
Avoid abbreviations.
 Units of measure should be clearly indicated in the table
Example: Age – is it in years or in months?
 Not commonly used codes, abbreviations and symbols
should be explained thoroughly in footnotes
 Table number – usually Arabic numbers, followed by a
period. (Assign numbers sequentially in the order of their
first citation in the text)
 Title – placed above the table
 Footnotes with asterisks or stacked cross
 Body of the table
 Do not use horizontal and vertical lines (gridlines) for the
table cells.
 Cell numbers – aligned by decimal; right justified
 Consistency with number of decimal places - Number of
decimal places should be up to 2 to 3 significant digits
 Data arrangement
 Like elements are read down not across.
 Easier to compare numbers going down a column than
a series of number going across a row.
Example:
Table 12: Poor placement of cases and variables in rows
and columns
To improve this table, the race (White, Asian Hispanic, Black)
should be put as row headings while the other different
variables (Median Family Income, Poverty Rate, % High School
Graduates) should be placed as column headers.
 For contingency tables or 2x2 tables
 Independent or explanatory variables are usually
considered as row variable.
 Dependent or outcome variables are usually
considered as column variable.
Table 3.1 Workers with Noise Induced Hearing Loss
(NIHL) in a noisy factory
The independent variable is noise which is arranged into rows.
The dependent variable is the presence or absence of noise-
induced hearing loss which is arranged into columns.
 Row or column percentages
 Row percentages if row variable is the explanatory
variable.
 Column percentages if column variable is the
explanatory variable.
Table 3.1 Workers with Noise Induced Hearing Loss
(NIHL) in a noisy factory
This table used column percentages because the column
variable is the explanatory variable.
 GRAPHICAL

Parts of a Graph  Graphs should be self-explanatory

 Clear labeling of title, source, axes, scales & legends
 Clear identify variables portrayed (legends or keys),
including units of measure
 Minimize number of lines on a graph
 Generally, portray frequency on the vertical scale, starting
at zero and classification variable on horizontal scale.
 Ensure that scales for each axis are appropriate for data
presented.
 Define any abbreviations or symbols and specify any data
excluded.

 X and Y axes labels - complete

 Origin – as much as possible, should start at zero
 Legend or title of the graph – placed below the graph
 Units, measurements and symbols – stated

 How to choose appropriate graph?

Nature of
Type Function Image Notes
variable
For comparisons
of absolute or It may either be horizontal or
relative counts, vertical (column graph). An
rates etc. important point about bar graphs
Bar Graph between is the length of the bars: the
(Horizontal/Vertical) categories of a greater the length, the greater
qualitative or a the value. It is used for discrete,
discrete grouped data of ordinal or
quantitative nominal scale.
variable.

It shows classes or groups of data

in proportion to the whole data
Shows the
set. The entire pie represents all
breakdown of a
the data while each slice or
group or total
segment represents a different
Pie Chart Qualitative where the
clas or group within the whole.
number of
Each slice should show significant
categories is not
variations. The number of
too many
categories should be small
(between 3 and 10).

Graphic It is a specialized type of bar graph

representation of that resembles a column graph but
the frequency there are no gaps beween the
columns. It is used to represent the
distribution of a
Continuous data from the measurement of a
Histogram continuous
continuous variable. Individual data
Quantitative variable or points are grouped together in classes
measurement to show the frequency of data in each
including age class. The frequency is measured by
groups the area of the column.

Shows trend data

or changes with
Line Diagram Time Series
respect to some
other variable.

It is used to present
measurements on two or more
Shows correlation
variables that are related; the
Scatterpoint, between two
Quantitative quantitative
value of the variables on the y-
Scatterplot axis are dependent on the values
variables
of the variable plotted along the
x-axis.
 Tips
Pie Charts
 Avoid using pie charts.
 Use pie charts only for data that add up to some meaningful total.
 Never ever use three dimensional pie charts. They are even worse
than two dimensional pies.
 Avoid forcing comparisons across more than one pie chart.
 For comparisons: use BAR charts.
Bar Charts
 Minimize the ink, do not use 3-D effects.
 Sort the data on the most significant variable.
 Use rotated bar charts if there are more than 8 to 10 categories.
Instead of placing the categories at the horizontal axis (x-axis), place
the categories in the y-axis.
 Place legends inside or below the plot area.
 With more than one data series, beware of scaling distortions.

SUMMARY

For Tables and Graphs to be effective:

 Present meaningful data
 Define data clearly
 Do not distort data
 Present data efficiently (properly)

END OF TRANSCRIPTION

“Il Signore, mi rende unostrumento della vostra pace”

Transcription Team 2019

Transcribed by: Trisha Mae M. Bongcales
References: Lecture, PPT, Journals &
websites stated in this
transcription
Remarks: Please refer to the ppt
for more examples.

Less time to mourn

More time to grind
#LABAN2019 
Past-E questions: Batch 2016
For questions 44-48. Choose one best answer.
44. Which of the following methods of presenting data is
suitable for small masses of data and limited summaries?
a. Graphical
b. Tabular
c. Textual
45. These tables are prepared during protocol making or at
least prior to any tabulation.
a. Frequency distribution table
b. Master tables
c. Dummy tables
d. 2x2 tables
Type of Table Description
Often reported to a preliminary
step in the analysis of
measurements. It is especially
useful for long series of
Frequency distribution table observations where individual
enumeration would be unwidely,
time consuming and of no value
at all in the discovery and
patterns in the data.
A single table which shows the
distribution of observations
across several variables of
interest. In a master table, each
Master table observation is simultaneously
cross-classified across the
variables which maybe
quantitative or qualitative in
nature.
Master table or simple table that
do not contain figures. These are
prepared during preparation
of the protocol or at least prior
to any tabulation. It provides a
Dummy table visual guide and reference to the
researcher in the conduct of the
study. These are prepared for the
person who will review the
research proposals as a guide in
their evaluation.
46. This is obligatory when presenting secondary data.
a. Caption
b. Body of the table
c. Footnote
d. Source note
47. This part of the table indicates the basis of classification
of rows or horizontal series of figures.
a. Caption
b. Stub
c. Title
d. Body of the table
Type Nature of Variables
Horizontal Bar Diagram Qualitative
Quantitative discrete or
Vertical Bar Diagram
discontinuous
Histogram/ Frequency
Quantitative
Polygon
Line Diagram Quantitative
Pie Chart/ Component Bar Qualitative
Scatterpoint, Scattergraph,
Quantitative
Dot Diagram, Scatterplot
For nos. 54-58. Choose the best answer.
54. In a 2x2 table, the number of cells and compartments will
be:
a. 2
b. 3
c. 4
d. 5
55. The basis of classification like frequencies, percentages
and rates is generally represented on ____ scale.
a. Horizontal
b. Vertical
c. Parallel
d. Diagonal
Horizontal – time and measurement
Vertical – frequencies, rates and percentage
Intentionally skipped #56 to avoid confusion.
57. Which of the following types of diagrams are applicably
only from qualitative data:
a. Horizontal bar graph
b. Pie chart
c. Component bar diagram
d. All of the above (Refer to table for #s 49-53)
58. When the number of categories of the data is what
type of graph will you present?
a. Horizontal bar graph
b. Pie chart
c. Line diagram
d. Histogram
It shows classes or groups of
data in proportion to the whole
data set. The entire pie
represents all the data while
each slice or segment represents
a different clas or group within
the whole. Each slice should
show significant variations. The
number of categories should be
small (between 3 and 10).

48. ___ is a type of table which is often reported to a 59. When constructing a pie chart, the variable with a __
preliminary step in the analysis of measurements. magnitude is the first slice of the pie.
a. Frequency distribution (Refer to table in #45.) a. Lower
b. Master table b. Higher
c. Dummy table c. Equal
d. Cross tabulation table d. All of the above

For nos. 49-53. Identify the kind of nature of variables for the 60. The type of data that can be presented using a pie chart
following type of graphs. Choose from the following: can also be presented using a:
A. Qualitative a. Horizontal bar graph
B. Quantitative discrete b. Component bar diagram (Refer to table for #s 49-53)
C. Quantitative continuous c. Frequency polygon
D. All of the above d. All of the above
49. Horizontal bar graph A.
50. Pie graph A.
51. Vertical bar graph B. Different lecturer so different set of questions,
52. Histogram C. you may or may not print this part. Good luck, guys! 
53. Scatter point diagram C.