BIOSTATISTICS AND RESEARCH

Code BIR 212

Hours 120
Credit 12 Hours

P. K. MUTETI
[email protected]

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Course outline

Module pre requisites: Community health

Module description.
This module will provide learners with knowledge of the concepts of biostatistics
and concepts of research.

Module competence.
This module is designed to enable the learner to carry out research related to
orthopaedic and trauma conditions
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Module outcomes

By the end of this module the learner should;

1. Demonstrate understanding of concepts of biostatistics
2. Demonstrate understating of the concepts of research
3. Develop research proposal
4. Conduct research and write a dissertation

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Module units

1. Introduction to Biostatistics 30 Hours

2. Introduction to research 06 Hours
3. Research proposal development 16 Hours
4. Conduct research dissertation writing 08 Hours

5. Practicals 40 Hours

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Module content

Introduction to biostatistics. Definition, concepts, scales of measurement,

methods of data presentation, measures of central tendencies, measures of
dispersion, normal distribution curve, confidence levels and intervals, sample size
determination.

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Biostatistics

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Definition

Statistics. The practice or science of collecting, organization, summarization,

analysing, interpretation, presentation of data and drawing conclusions.
especially for the purpose of inferring proportions from those in a representative
sample.

The science concerned with developing and studying methods for collecting,
analyzing, interpreting and presenting empirical data.

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Cont

Biostatistics. Is the application of statistical techniques to scientific research in

health-related fields, including medicine, public health, biology and the
development of new tools to study these areas.

The branch of statistics that deals with data relating to living organisms.

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Terminology definitions

1. Data. The raw material of statistics, facts, figures, observations, and information
that come from investigations. or a set of measurements that result when a
variable is measured on a set of experimental units
2. Variable. Characteristic or attribute that can assume different values. Or a
characteristic that changes or varies over time and/or for different individuals or
objects under consideration e.g. body temperature is a variable that changes over
time within a single individual. Religious affiliations, income, height, age, weight,
parity, are all variables.

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Components of biostatistics

1. Basics of biostatistics.
2. Data and variables.
3. Population, sample
4. Descriptive statistics.
5. Measures of central tendency.
6. Measures of dispersion.

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Cont

7. Measures of precision.
8. Frequency distributions.
9. Probability distributions.
10. Formulating hypotheses
11. Collecting data
12. Applying statistical analyses to draw meaningful conclusions

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History of statistics: (Historical Background):

The use of statistical methods dates back at least to the 5th century BC.
Kings and rulers needed information about lands, agriculture, commerce,
population to assess military potential, their wealth, taxation etc.
Early applications of statistical thinking revolved around the needs of states to base
policy on demographic and economic data.
The scope of the discipline of statistics broadened in the early 19th century to
include the collection and analysis of data in general.
Today, statistics is widely employed in government, business, and the natural and
social sciences.

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Sources of data in statistics.

1. Primary data source. The collection of data from its original source. eg.
Surveys, observations, experiments, questionnaire, personal interview

2. Secondary data sources. The collection of data that has already been collected
by somebody else in the past. Government record / publications, websites,
books, journal articles, internal records

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Sources of statistics

Biological data is derived from the official recording of vital events e.g.
1. Birth notification records
2. Death notification records
3. Marriage records
4. Divorce records
5. The occurrence of a particular disease.

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Statistical methods

Statistical methods involve the following activities.

1. Collection of data.
2. Organization of the data collected.
3. Presentation of the data for analysis.
4. Analysis of the data.
5. Interpretation of the data.
6. Dissemination.

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Methods of data collection

1. Surveys, quizzes, and questionnaires.

2. Interviews.
3. Focus groups interviews.
4. Direct observations.
5. Documents and records
Purpose of statistics

1. To organize and summarize data so that the researcher can see what happened
in the research study and can share results to others.
2. It helps the researcher to answer the general question that initiated the
research by determining exactly what conclusion are justified based on the results.

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Types / Classes of data in statistics

Data can either be measured or can be an observed feature of interest.

1. Quantitative data. Data that can be counted or measured in numerical values.
Also referred to as categorical data.
2. Qualitative data. Data that cannot be measured and is observed and recorded
as non-numerical data

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Types / Classes of data in statistics

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Quantitative (numerical) data

Quantitative (numerical) data is measurable, often used for comparisons, and

involves counting of people, behaviors, conditions, or other discrete events.
Quantitative data uses numbers to determine the what, who, when, and where of
health-related events
Examples of quantitative data include: Age, weight, temperature, or the number of
people suffering from osteomyelitis, diabetes.

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Qualitative (categorical) data.

Qualitative (categorical) data is a broad category of data that can include almost
any non-numerical data.
Qualitative data uses words to describe a particular health-related event
This data can be observed, but not measured. Involves observing people in
selected places and listening to discover how they feel and why they might feel that
way.
Examples of qualitative data include: Gender. Male / female, Marital status:
Married 2. Single 3. Divorced 4. Widowed. Smoker/nonsmoker, or questionnaire
response (agree, disagree, neutral)

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Classification / types of statistical data

Data appears in numerical, categorical, nominal data.

and ordinal forms.

1. Numerical data. Is presented in numbers. It is further classified as discrete data

(appears in whole numbers) and continuous data (appears in continuous decimals).
Continuous data. e.g. age in years, height in metres, Haemoglobin level in g/ml.

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Types of numerical data

1. Discrete data. For discrete data, both ordering and magnitude are important.
Numbers represent actual measurable quantities rather than mere labels. Discrete
data take on only specified values often integers or counts –that differ by fixed
amounts; no intermediate values are possible. Example; number of children per
family, number of workers in a factory, number of motor vehicles passing the weigh
bridge in a particular month of the year, Parity, number of new cases of AIDs
reported in the year 2008.
The number of children per family can take only the values 0, 1, 2, 3, … i.e. whole
numbers it cannot take a fractional value

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Cont

2. Continuous data. Is data that represents measurable quantities but are not
restricted to taking on certain specified values, that can theoretically be measured
in infinitely small units
Examples: Weight in Kilograms (Kgs) 3 Kg. 3.5 Kg, 7 Kg, Time, serum level, and
cholesterol level of a patient, and temperature etc.
In all instances, fractional values are possible. Since we are able to measure the
distance between two observations in a meaningful way, arithmetic operations can
be applied.
At times we may require a lesser degree of detail than that afforded by continuous
data hence we occasionally transform continuous data into either discrete or
ordinal ones.

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Cont

3. Categorical data. It maybe.

i. Binary data (can be in two groups e.g. either Sex: Male (1) Female (2), or Alive or
dead)
ii. Nominal data. Consists of more than two categories (dichotomous or binary).
Eg. Marital status – Married (1), single (2), divorced (3), separated (4).
iii. Ordinal data – Is arranged in a specific order, rank or mixes numerical and
categorical data. Eg. The severity of illness. – Mild (grade I), moderate (grade II),
severe(grade III),
Level of consciousness (alert, responsive to pain, responsive to voice, unconscious)

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Cont

Ordinal mixed data.

Home to clinic distance.
Far (10 km and more)
Reasonably near 5 – 10 km
Near (Less than 5 km)

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Parametric statistics

1. Parametric statistics. Are based on assumptions that data is from a population

that can be modelled. Eg. Student's t-tests
2. Nonparametric statistics. Are not based on assumptions, that is, the data can
be collected from a sample that does not follow a specific distribution. Eg.
Wilcoxon test.

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The end

Thank you