Faculty of Nursing

Postgraduate Student – M.Sc.

Biostatistics- Lec (1)

Assist. Prof. Dr. Ali Jabbar Eidan 1

Ph.D. – Clinical Immunology
What is Meant by Statistics?
Statistics is the science of collecting,
organizing, presenting, analyzing, and
interpreting data to assist in making
more effective decisions.

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What is Meant by Biostatistics?
Biotatistics is the science of collecting,
organizing, presenting, analyzing, and
interpreting biological data to assist in
making more effective decisions.

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Ball Color No.
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 Population vs. Sample

A population is all the possible individuals, objects, or

measurements of interest.

A sample is a part of the population of interest

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Population and Sample

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• Parameters are numerical measures that
describe the population or universe of
interest. Usually donated by Greek letters; 
(mu),  (sigma),  (rho),  (lambda),
 (tau),  (theta),  (alpha) and  (beta).

• Statistics are numerical measures of a sample

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Types of Statistics

Descriptive statistics

Inferential statistics

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Descriptive Statistics
Descriptive Statistics :
Methods of organizing, summarizing, and
presenting data as tables, figures … etc.

EXAMPLE 1: An investigator has studied 100 DM

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patients, he found that 60% of them has CVD .
 Inferential Statistics
Inferential Statistics

use descriptive statistics to make a decision,

estimate, prediction, or generalization about a
population .
EXAMPLE 1: most of DM patients has CVD .

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Common statistical terms

• Variable A characteristic that is

observed or measured .

• Data : Measurements or
observations of a variable .
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Numbers - data - statistics Mean Value = 194.6 pound
Minimum = 100 pound
Maximum = 300 pound
Range = 200 pounds
Statistics

Human Weight (pound):

100, 140, 213, 230, 180, 211, 120, 160, 200, 110, 260, 235, 280, 180, 300
DATA (measurement)

100, 140, 213, 230, 180, 211, 120, 160, 200, 110, 260, 235, 280, 180, 300

NUMBERS
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 An Independent variable is a variable that is
manipulated by the researcher .

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Quantitative Variables
can be classified as either discrete or continuous.

A. Discrete variables (Countable)

The values of a discrete variable are usually whole numbers .

Examples: the number of bedrooms in a house, or the

number of students in the class (1,2,3,…,etc).

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Quantitative Variables

B. Continuous variable (Measurable)

A continuous variable is measured on a continuous

scale.
Examples: The pressure in a tire, the weight of a
patient, or the height of a student .

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Qualitative Variables

Qualitative (nonnumeric characteristic ).

Examples: Gender, religion, occupation, eye color

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 levels of Data
1. Nominal level
- data are classified into
categories and cannot be
arranged in any particular order
(qualitative variable) .

EXAMPLES:
eye color (black, brown, yellow)
Gender : (Male , Female)
religious affiliation : (Muslim,
Christian, Jewish)

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 levels of Data
2. Ordinal level
– data can be arranged in some
order, but the differences
between data values cannot be
determined (qualitative
variable) .

EXAMPLE:
• Pain level (e.g., mild, moderate,
severe)
• Military rank (e.g., lieutenant, captain,
major, colonel, general)

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 levels of Data

3. Interval level
- similar to the ordinal level, but
differences between data values
can be determined (quantitative).
- There is no true zero .

EXAMPLE: Temperature on the Celsies scale.

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 levels of Data

4. Ratio level
– Measurements have equal intervals
– There is a true zero
– Ratio is the most advanced level of measurement,
which can handle most types of mathematical
operations .

EXAMPLE: weight , height … etc.

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 Exercises:
Q6: For each of the following variables
indicate whether it is quantitative or
qualitative variable:
(a) Class standing of the members of this
class relative to each other.
Qualitative ordinal
(b) Admitting diagnoses of patients admitted
to a mental health clinic.
Qualitative nominal
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(c) Weights of babies born in a hospital
during a year.
Quantitative continues
(d) Gender of babies born in a hospital during a year.
Qualitative nominal
(e) Range of motion of elbow joint of students enrolled in a
university health sciences curriculum.
Quantitative continues
(f) Under-arm temperature of day-old infants born in a hospital.
Quantitative continues

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Q7: For each of the following situations,
answer questions a through d:
(a) What is the population?
(b) What is the sample in the study?
(c) What is the variable of interest?
(d) What is the type of the variable?
Situation A: A study of 300 households in a
small southern town revealed that 20
percent had at least one school-age child
present.

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(a) Population: All households in a small
southern town.
(b) Sample: 300 households in a small
southern town.
(c) Variable: Does households had at least one
school age child present.
(d) Variable is qualitative nominal.

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Situation B: A study of 250 patients admitted •
to a hospital during the past year revealed
that, on the average, the patients lived 15
miles from the
hospital.
(a) Population: All patients admitted to a
hospital during the past year.
(b) Sample: 250 patients admitted to a hospital
during the past year.

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(c) Variable: Distance the hospital live away
from the hospital
(d) Variable is Quantitative continuous.

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 WHY DO WE NEED BIOSTATISTICS ?
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