Biostatistics

Measures of Central Tendency

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 Percentages and Proportions
 Report relative size.
 Compare the number of cases in a
specific category to the number of cases
in all categories.
 Compare a part (specific category) to a
whole (all categories).
 The part is the numerator (f ).
 The whole is the denominator (N).
Percentages and Proportions: Example
• What % of social science majors is male?
• of (whole) = all social science majors
• 97 + 132 = 229
• is (part) = male social science majors
• 97
• (97/229) * 100 = (.4236) * 100 = 42.36%
• 42.36% of social science majors are male
Ratios

• Compare the relative sizes of categories.

• Compare parts to parts.

• Ratio = f1 / f2

• f1 - number of cases in first category

• f2 number of cases in second category

Ratios - example
• In a class of 23 females and 19 males, the ratio of
males to females is:
• 19/23 = 0.83
• For every female, there are 0.83 males.

• In the same class, the ratio of females to males is:

• 23/19 = 1.21
• For every male, there are 1.21 females.
 Rate ‫ میزان‬- ‫سرعت‬
• Expresses the number of actual occurrences of an event
(births, deaths, homicides) vs. the number of possible
occurrences per some unit of time.

• Example: Birth rate is the number of births divided by the

population size times 1000 per year.

• If a town of 2300 had 17 births last year, the birth rate is:
• (17/2300) * 1000 = (.00739) * 1000 = 7.39
• The town had 7.39 births for every 1000 residents.
Percentage Change
• Measures the relative increase or decrease in a variable
over time.

f1 is the first (or earlier) frequency.

f2 is the second (or later) frequency.
Percentage Change: Example

• In 1990, a state had a murder rate of 7.3.

• By 2000, the rate had increased to 10.7.

• What was the relative change?

• (10.7 – 7.3 / 7.3) * 100 = (3.4 / 7.3) * 100 = 46.58%

• The rate increased by 46.58%.

Measures of Central Tendency

‫اندازه گیری گرایش مرکزی‬

 Measures of Central Tendency
• When working with a large data set, it can be useful to
represent the entire data set with a single value that
describes the "middle" or "average" value of the entire set.
In statistics, that single value is called the measure of central
tendency
• A measure of central tendency is a descriptive statistic that
describes the average, or typical value of a set of scores
• There are three common measures of central tendency:
• the mode
• the median
• the mean 10
 Mode
• The mode is the score that occurs
most frequently in a set of data

12, 15, 11, 11, 7, 13

The mode is 11.

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Bimodal Distributions
• When a distribution has two “modes,” it
is called bimodal

Sometimes a set of data will have more than one mode.

For example, in the following set the numbers both the numbers
5 and 7 appear twice.
2, 9, 5, 7, 8, 6, 4, 7, 5
5 and 7 are both the mode and this set is said to be bimodal.
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 Multimodal Distributions
• If a distribution has more than 2 “modes,” it is called
multimodal

Sometimes there is no mode in a set of data.

3, 8, 7, 6, 12, 11, 2, 1
All the numbers in this set occur only once therefore there is
no mode in this set. 13
When To Use the Mode

• The mode is not a very useful measure of central tendency

• It is insensitive to large changes in the data set
• That is, two data sets that are very different from each other can
have the same mode

• The mode is primarily used with nominally scaled data

• It is the only measure of central tendency that is appropriate for
nominally scaled data 14
 The

$100, $275, $300, $325, $350, $375,

$500
What is the mode ?

$100, $275, $300, $325, $350, $375, $500

There is no mode!
 The Median
• It is the score in the middle; half of the scores are larger than the
median and half of the scores are smaller than the median
• Conceptually, it is easy to calculate the median

• Sort the data from highest to lowest

• Find the score in the middle

• middle = (N + 1) / 2
• If N, the number of scores, is even the median is the average of the middle
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Median Example -1
• What is the median of the following scores:
10 8 14 15 7 3 3 8 12 10 9
• Sort the scores:
15 14 12 10 10 9 8 8 7 3 3
• Determine the middle score:
middle = (N + 1) / 2 = (11 + 1) / 2 = 6
• Middle score = median = 9

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Median Example - 2
• What is the median of the following scores:
24 18 19 42 16 12
• Sort the scores:
42 24 19 18 16 12
• Determine the middle score:
middle = (N + 1) / 2 = (6 + 1) / 2 = 3.5
• Median = average of 3rd and 4th scores:
(19 + 18) / 2 = 18.5

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When To Use the Median
• The median is often used when the distribution of scores is
either positively or negatively skewed
• The few really large scores (positively skewed) or really
small scores (negatively skewed) will not overly influence
the median

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Mean Calculating the Mean

• The mean is: • Calculate the mean of the

• the arithmetic average of following data:
1 5 4 3 2
all the scores
(X)/N • Sum the scores (X):
1 + 5 + 4 + 3 + 2 = 15
• The mean of a population is • Divide the sum (X = 15) by the
represented by the Greek number of scores (N = 5):
letter ; the mean of a 15 / 5 = 3
sample is represented by X • Mean = X = 3

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 When To Use the Mean
• You should use the mean when
• the data are interval or ratio scaled
• Many people will use the mean with ordinally scaled data too
• and the data are not skewed

• The mean is preferred because it is sensitive to every score

• If you change one score in the data set, the mean will change
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Mean Example
An electronics store sells CD players at the following
prices: $350, $275, $500, $325, $100, $375, and $300.
What is the mean price?

$350 + $275 + $500 + $325 + $100 +$375 + $300 =

$2225
$2225 / 7 = $317.86

The mean or average price of a CD player is $317.86.

 Relations Between the Measures of Central Tendency

• In symmetrical distributions, the median and mean are equal

• For normal distributions, mean = median = mode

• In positively skewed distributions, the mean is greater than the

median
In negatively skewed distributions, the mean is smaller than the median

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 Quartiles, Deciles and Percentiles
(Measure of Position)
• The median splits the data into equal sized halves

• Quartiles split the data into quarters

• Deciles into tenths

• And percentiles can be any split of our choosing

 50% - - 50%

Lowest Data Median Highest Data

Value 50% value Value
Quartiles
25% 25% 25% 25%
Q1 Q2 Q3

Deciles 1/10

10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10%
 Percentile Computation
• To formalize the computational procedure, let Lp refer to the location of a
desired percentile. So if we wanted to find the 33rd percentile we would
use L33 and if we wanted the median, the 50th percentile, then L50.

• The number of observations is n, so if we want to locate the median, its

position is at (n + 1)/2, or we could write this as
(n + 1)(P/100), where P is the desired percentile.
 LO2

Percentiles - Example

Locate the median, the first quartile, and the third quartile for the
below data:

$2,038 $1,758 $1,721 $1,637

$2,097 $2,047 $2,205 $1,787
$2,287 $1,940 $2,311 $2,054
$2,406 $1,471 $1,460
 LO2

Percentiles – Example (cont.)

Step 1: Organize the data from lowest to largest value

$1,460 $1,471 $1,637 $1,721

$1,758 $1,787 $1,940 $2,038
$2,047 $2,054 $2,097 $2,205
$2,287 $2,311 $2,406
Percentiles – Example (cont.)

Step 2: Compute the first and third quartiles. Locate L25 and L75 using:

25 75
L25 (15  1) 4 L75 (15  1) 12
100 100
Therefore, the first and third quartiles are located at the 4th and 12th
positions, respective ly
L25 $1,721
L75 $2,205
 Quartile Measures
Calculating The Quartiles: Example
Sample Data in Ordered Array: 11 12 13 16 16 17 18 21 22

(n = 9)
Q1 is in the (9+1)*25/100 = 2.5 position of the ranked data,
so Q1 = (12+13)/2 = 12.5

Q2 is in the (9+1)*50/100 = 5th position of the ranked data,

so Q2 = median = 16

Q3 is in the (9+1)*75/100 = 7.5 position of the ranked data,

so Q3 = (18+21)/2 = 19.5

Q1 and Q3 are measures of non-central location

Q2 = median, is a measure of central tendency
 Boxplots
A box plot is a graphical display, based on quartiles, that helps us
picture a set of data.

To construct a box plot, we need only five statistics:

1. the minimum value,

2. Q1(the first quartile),
3. the median,
4. Q3 (the third quartile), and
5. the maximum value.
 LO3

Boxplot - Example
 Boxplot Example
Step1: Create an appropriate scale along the horizontal axis.
Step 2: Draw a box that starts at Q1 (15 minutes) and ends at Q3 (22
minutes). Inside the box we place a vertical line to represent the median (18
minutes).

Step 3: Extend horizontal lines from the box out to the minimum value (13
minutes) and the maximum value (30 minutes).
 Distribution Shape and
The Boxplot

Negatively-Skewed Symmetrical Positively-Skewed

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q1 Q2 Q3
 Quartile Measures:
The Interquartile Range (IQR)

― The IQR is Q3 – Q1 and measures the spread in the middle 50% of the data

― The IQR is a measure of variability that is not influenced by outliers or extreme

values

― Measures like Q1, Q3, and IQR that are not influenced by outliers are called
resistant measures
The Interquartile Range

Example:
Median X
X Q1 Q3
(Q2) maximum
minimum
25% 25% 25% 25%

11 12.5 16 19.5 22

Interquartile range
= 19.5 – 12.5 = 7