Biostatistics

Inder makhija
MCOPS
Manipal
Introduction
What is information?
How is it obtained, analyzed & interpreted?
What do you mean by data?
Form of data?
Objectives
To organize and summarize data
How to arrive at a conclusion ( for a large
data) by examining only a small part of
data

Descriptive statistics covers the first

objective
Inferential statistics
Basic concepts
Data (datum- singular)
Raw material of statistics (numbers)
Variable (different characteristics)
Heart rate, diastolic blood pressure, height,
weight, age, etc
 Quantitative variable
 One that can be measured; age, BP, blood
glucose,
 Qualitative variable
 One that cannot be measured; gender, healthy,
sick, marital
Variables (contd)
Random variable
One which cannot be exactly predicted
Discrete random variable
Interruptions in values
Absence of values between particular values
Continuous random variable
Does not possess gaps or interruptions
Sample
Part of a population
Measurement scales
Nominal scale
Naming the observations e.g. male- female,
well- sick, married- unmarried
Ordinal scale
Ranked according to some criteria e.g.
above average, average, below average
Interval scale
Truly quantitative scale
Do not have a true zero point
Ratio scale
True zero point
Descriptive statistics
The ability to summarize data by means of
a single number
Types of descriptive measures
Measures of central tendency
Measures of dispersion
Central tendency
Mean
Median
Mode
Central tendency
 A number close to the center of distribution of observations
 Represents all observations
 Gives the average value of a set of values
 Measures of central tendency
Arithmetic mean (AM) {most familiar & useful measure}
μ = ∑x/N
μ → population mean
N → no. of values in the population
x → random variable
Measures of central tendency
Sample mean
x→ sample mean
n→ no. of values in the sample
x → random variable
The sample mean is continuous variable
Can μ be equal to
Properties of mean
For a given set of data there can be only
one arithmetic mean
AM is easily understood & computed
In some cases, an extreme value can
distort the mean
Uses
Suitable measure to summarize continuous
variables with symmetric distribution
Example
 Following are the Hb (gm%) levels of 5 students.
Calculate the AM
 12.2, 12.5, 13.0, 11.4, 10.9
Limitations of arithmetic
mean
AM is affected by extreme values e.g. ….
Cannot be used in open end cases
 Cannot be used for qualitative
characteristics
Central tendency
 Median
 Middle observation (for odd no. of values)
 Greater than 50% of the observations and less than
the 50% observations
 Can be computed if some of the extreme values are
missing
 Demerit
 Not based on all the observations
 4 8 9 12 15 25 202
 If 12 values are there, then 12+1/2= 6.5th ordered
value
 Mode
 Most frequently occurring value
Measures of dispersion/variation
Information regarding the amount of
variability present in a set of data
Dispersion is present in the data when all
the values are not the same
Amount of dispersion may be small, when
the values, though different , are close
together
Symmetric distribution
Skew distribution
Normal/ Symmetric distribution
(bell shaped curve)
Skew normal distribution
Measures of dispersion/
variability
Range (to measure variation in a set of values)
Difference bw the largest & smallest value in a set of
observations
Variance is defined as the sum of the squares of the
differences of each observation from the mean

s2 is for the sample

σ2 is for the population
n-1 is degrees of freedom
Measures of variability
Variance
Closely related to SD
Used in certain parametric techniques
It is the square of SD
Measures of variability
 Standard deviation
 Most widely applied
 The measure of the error of a single observation in a
sample
 Measure of variability or
Dispersion of a population
σ=
x is a random variable
μ is the population mean
N is the no. of values in the population
 The average height for adult men in Udupi is
about 70 inches with a standard deviation of
around 3 inches. This means that …
 If the standard deviation were zero
then all men would be exactly 70 inches tall.
 If the standard deviation were 20 inches , then
men would have much more variable heights,
with a typical range of about 50 to 90 inches.
How to calculate SD?
Calculate
Find out deviations x –
Square the deviations
Find out the sum of the squares ∑
Divide sum of squares with df i.e. variance
Square root of variance is SD
SD calculation for grouped
data
SD =
 is the grouped mean
x is the class frequency
f is the frequency
n = ∑f

n-1 is the denominator for a sample

N is the denominator for a population
Coefficient of variation (CV)
SD/ mean x 100
Measured in %
Helps to compare the relative amounts of
variation between unrelated groups.

Standard error
It is the standard error of the mean of n
observations
Standard deviation upon square root of n
Variability of observations
Biological variability
Individual
Periodical variability
Group
Sampling
Real variability
 When the difference between two readings is more
than the defined limit of the universe
Experiment variability
Observer error
Instrument
sampling
 Probability
Occurrence of some event by a number between
zero and one.
Event that cannot occur has a probability of zero
Event that can occur has a probability of one
Probability can also be expressed as following
1/7= 0.1428 0r 14.28%
How can probability of an event be calculated?
P (E) = m/N
m= no. of ways event E can occur
N= total no. of possible outcomes
Probability
What is the probability of choosing a vowel
from the alphabets?
What is the probability of choosing odd
numbers from 1 to 11?
What is the probability of getting an even
no when a die is rolled?
Conditional probability
A pharmacology teacher gave her class 2
tests. 30% of the class passed both the
tests and 58% of the class passed the first
test. What % of those who passed the first
test also passed the second test?
P= P (first & second)/ P (first)
P =0.30 / 0.58
P = 51. 72%
Probability distribution
Probability distribution of a discrete random
variable is a table, graph or formula used to
specify all possible values of a discrete random
variable along with their respective
probabilities
Uses
To estimate the P that an event will have an
outcome
To generate a distribution of expected
frequencies
To compare the expected frequencies with
observed frequencies
Characteristics of all probability
distributions of discrete variables
Number of programs (x) Frequency (X = x)
1 62 0.2088
2 47 0.1582
3 39
4 39
5 58
6 37
7 4
8 11
Total 297 1.0000

The values of P (X = x) are positive, they are all less than 1 and
their sum=1
Binomial distribution (Bernoulli
trial)
 A random process or experiment, called a trial that
results in only one of two mutually exclusive
outcomes, such as success (p) or failure (1-p)
denoted by q.
 Applicable to discrete variable data
 Fixed no. of trials
 Probabilities remain constant from trial to trial
 Discrete variables
 Positive attributes
 Negative attributes
 p= probability of occurrences of +ve attribute
 q=(1-p) “ “ “ “ -ve “
Formula for binomial
probabilities
P(x)= .px. qn-x

 p= P(S) probability of success on one trial

 q= P(F) = 1 –p probability of failure on
one trial
 n= no. of binomial trials
x= no. of successes in n trials
P(x)= probability of exact successful
outcomes
Normal or Gaussian
distribution
 Applicable to continuous variables
 Symmetrical about its mean (μ)
 Bell shaped graph
 Mean, median and mode –all are equal
 Total AUC above the x- axis is 1 square unit
 Mean ± 1 SD limits include 68% of observations
 Mean ± 2 SD limits include 95% of observations
 Mean ± 1.96 SD limits include 95% of observations
 Mean ± 3 SD limits include 99.7% of observations
 Mean ± 2.58 SD limits include 99% of observations
 What is the significance of this?
Standard normal distribution
graph
Normal distribution table of
heights
Height (cms) Frequency
142.5 3
145.0 8
147.5 15
150.0 45
152.5 90
155.0 155
157.5 194
160.0 195
162.5 136
165.0 93
167.5 42
170.0 16
172.5 6
175.0 2