Organizing and Displaying Data

Shair Muhammad Hazara

PhD Public Health (Fellow), HSA, NIH, Islamabad)
MSPH (Health Services Academy, NIH, Islamabad)
MSBE (Dow University of Health Sciences Karachi)
BSN (PRN) The Aga Khan University, Karachi
E-mail address: hazara_27@Hotmail.com

Acknowledgement: Ms. Yasmin Parpio

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 Presentation of Data
• Statistical data are generally presented by:

Tables
- Frequency table
- Cross-tabulation
Graphs
- For Qualitative data
- For Quantitative data

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 Collection of Information
(Qualitative Data)

- A Psychologist asked a list of questions to measure the

level of Anxiety and Depression in the patient. In one of
the question she asked:
“Have you had lack of interest in your daily activities during past two weeks?”
Code: 0=Never; 1=few times; 2=often; 3=Always
The responses of 20 randomly selected patients for the above question were:

Few times; Always; Never; Often;

Often; Often; Always; Few times;
Often; Always; Often; Never;
Always; Often; Always; Often;
Often; Few times; Often; Always; 3
Classification, Summarization & Organization of Qualitative Data
________________________________________________________________
Response Frequency Relative
Frequency_
Tally Number of
Marks Patients Proportion

Never II 2 2/20=0.10
Few Times III 3 3/20=0.15
Often IIIIIIII 9 9/20=0.45
Always IIIII 6 6/20=0.30
____________________________________________________
Total 20 1.00
Note: Relative frequency can also be presented in times of percentage by multiplying 100.
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 Frequency Distribution

• A Tabular summary of a set of data showing the frequency

(or number) of items in each of several non overlapping
(with each data value belonging to one and only one
group) groups.
Tally Marks
• Used to count the number of data items associated with
each group.

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 Definitions

Class
• One of the categories in which qualitative data can be classified.
• A range of value established to divide quantitative data in to classe
Class Frequency
• Number of observations in a data set falling into a particular class.
Cumulative Frequency
• Number of observation in a data set falling below or above
particular class inclusive of that particular class.
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 Class Relative Frequency
• Class frequency divided by the total number of observations in the data
set.
Relative Frequency = Frequency
Total observations
Relative Cumulative Frequency
• Cumulative frequency divided by the total number of observations in the
data set.
Relative cumulative Frequency = Cumulative Frequency
Total observation

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 Collection of Information
(Quantitative Data)

Problem Description:
The class of 2009 at the Aga Khan University School of Nursing
conducted a baseline sample survey at Rehri Goth for the Emergency
obstetric care project. As the baseline information, the students also
asked about the number of living children per women (15-49 years).
The following data has been collected based on a random sample of
n=30 woman.

2, 2, 5, 3, 0, 1, 3, 2, 3, 4, 1, 3, 4, 5,7, 3, 2, 4, 1, 0, 5, 8, 6, 5, 4, 2, 4, 4, 7, 6

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Classification, Summarization & Organization of Quantitative Data

Number of Cumulative
Living children Tally Frequency Frequency

0 II 2 2
1 III 3 5
2 IIII 5 10
3 IIII 5 15
4 IIIII 6 21
5 IIII 4 25
6 II 2 27
7 II 2 29
8 I 1 30
_______________________________________________
Total 30 9
 Class Frequency Relative Cumulative Cum. Relative
(No of Living Frequency Frequency Frequency
Children)
0 2 2/30 = 0.0666 2 2/30 = 0.0666
1 3 3/30 = 0.1 5 5/30 = 0.1666
2 5 5/30 = 0.1666 10 10/30 = 0.3333
3 5 5/30 = 0.1666 15 15/30 = 0.5
4 6 6/30 = 0.2 21 21/30 = 0.7
5 4 4/30 = 0.1333 25 25/30 = 0.8333
6 2 2/30 = 0.0666 27 27/30 = 0.9
7 2 2/30 = 0.0666 29 29/30 = 0.9666
8 1 1/30 = 0.0333 30 30/30 = 1.00
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What happened when you have a lot of different observation?

Problem description:
A sample survey was conducted in a squatter settlement of Karachi,
the households were asked about the average monthly amount (in
Rs.) spent on health by them? The following data was collected
based on random sample of n=25 households.

90, 75, 140, 80, 60, 55, 105, 70, 298, 180, 105, 130, 145, 150,
270, 235, 125, 245, 100, 205, 50, 85, 160, 275, 194.

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Steps to summarize the into Frequency Distribution Table

The following steps should be taken:

Step 1: compute the interval spanned by the data. We can obtain
this interval by arranging the data into an array, a listing all
observations from smallest to Largest.

50, 55, 60, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 100, 105, 105, 125, 130,
140, 145, 150, 160, 180, 194, 205, 235, 245, 270, 275, 298

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 Steps to summarize the into Frequency Distribution Table

• Step 2: Divide the range into an arbitrary number but usually equal and
non-overlapping segments (each data value belonging to one and only one
segments) called class intervals. The number of intervals depends on the
number of observations but in general should range from 5 to 15.
Suppose we want to group the data into five non-overlapping classes
Approximate Class Width =
Largest data value – Smallest data value
Number of Classes
298 -50 = 248 = 49.6
5 5
Rounding up, we choose to create five classes of width of 50 each
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Classification, Summarization & Organization of Quantitative Data

Expenditure on Tally Frequency CF/Total number

Health (Rs.) (Relative = Relative Cumulative Frequency
Frequency )

50-99 IIIIIII 08 (0.32) 08/25 = 0.32

100-149 IIIIII 07 (0.28) 15/25 = 0.60
150-199 IIII 04 (0.16) 19/25 = 0.76
200-249 III 03 (0.12) 22/25 = 0.88
250-299 III 03 (0.12) 25/25 = 1.00
Total 25
Note: Relative Frequency can also be presented in terms of percentage
by multiplying 100
15
 Graphical Presentation of Data

• Graphs are
Geometrical
designs:
- Convey information
at a glance
- Mathematically less
sophisticated

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 Graphical Presentation of Data

• Which type of chart?

– Data structure
– Variable type
– Measurement
characteristics
• Questions to ask
– Type of data
• Qualitative
• Quantitative

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 Graphical Presentation of Quantitative Data

• Histogram
• Relative Histogram
• Frequency Polygon
• Cumulative Frequency Polygon / Ogive Chart
• Dot Plot
• Scatter Plot

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Histogram

– Similar to bar chart 

bars closely situated
– Percentages
– # of bars?
• Too few  data
clumps
• Too many  overly
detailed

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Histogram

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Frequency Polygon
Frequency Polygon
Frequency Polygon
Cumulative Frequency Polygon (Ogive)

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Frequency Polygon

Advantages of polygons:
•The frequency polygon is simpler than its histogram counterpart.
•It sketches an outline of the data pattern more clearly.
•The polygon becomes increasingly smooth and curve like as we increase
the number of classes and the number of observations.

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 Dot Plot
A
A

15

10
A A

5 A A A A
A A
A A
A A A A A A
A AA A AA A A A A A A A A A AA A A
0
20 40 60 80

Age

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 Dot Plot
10

8
Frequency

Sex
2
Male

0 Female
20 28 36 41 45 50 54 62 68 75
25 32 39 43 48 52 56 65 71

Age 27
Scatter plot

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 Graphical Presentation of Qualitative Data

• Simple Bar chart

• Multiple Bar chart
• Component Bar Chart
• Sliding Bar Chart (e.g. Population Pyramid)
• Pie Chart
• Doughnut

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Bar Chart

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Bar Chart
Bar Chart
Bar Chart
Bar Chart
Sliding Bar Chart

35
Pie Chart
Pie Chart
Pie Chart
Pie Chart
Pie Chart
Pie Chart
Pie Chart
Line Graph

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Donut (Doughnut) Chart

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