Introduction to Biostatistics Using SPSS

SUMMARIZING DATA
Descriptive Analysis

Chee Fong Tyng

School of Sustainable Agriculture
Universiti Malaysia Sabah
ftchee@ums.edu.my
 Descriptive
• Measures of central tendency
– Mean
– Median
– Mode
• Measures of dispersion
– Range
– Interquartile range
– Variance and standard deviation
– Coefficient of variation

Introduction to Biostatistics Using SPSS

Measures of Central Tendency

• Summarizes the entire data set into a single

variable (measurement)
• Measures of Central Tendency includes
– Median
– Trimmed Mean
– Mean
– Mode

Introduction to Biostatistics Using SPSS

 Mean
• The sum of the measurements divided by the total
number of measurements or better known as the
average. x
x
n
• There is only 1 mean.
• Work well if data reasonably symmetric and
unimodal (“bell-shaped”)
• Not good measurement if got extreme data values
(“outliers”) are present & data are skewed
• Value is influences by extreme measurements
• Applicable to quantitative data only.
Introduction to Biostatistics Using SPSS
 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 12 14

Mean = 5 Mean = 6

© 2002 Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Chap 3-5
Introduction to Biostatistics Using SPSS
 Trimmed Mean
• the mean is calculated in the usual way, except that
the specified percent of the most extreme
observations are not included in the calculations
• The mean is influenced by extreme values (Outliers)
• To reduce the effect of outliers which distort the mean
value, a variation of the mean is introduced.
• Trimmed mean drops the highest and lowest extreme
values and averages the rest.
– For example, the 5% trimmed mean would ignore the
smallest 5% and the largest 5% of the measurements

Introduction to Biostatistics Using SPSS

 Median
• The middle value when the measurements are arranged
from lowest to highest.
• 50% of the measurement lie above it and 50% fall below
it.
• Often used to measure the midpoint of a large set of
measurement.
– median = 50th percentile = second quartile (Q2)
• There is only 1 median
• Not influenced by extreme measurements.
• Applicable to quantitative data only.

Introduction to Biostatistics Using SPSS

 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 12 14

Median = 5 Median = 5

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 12 14

Median = 6

• If the number of observations (n) is odd, the median is the middle value,
or the [(n+1)/2]th observation.
• If n is even, the median is usually calculated as the average of the two
middlemost values- that is, the average of the [(n/2)]th observation and
the [(n/2) + 1]th observation.
© 2002 Prentice-Hall, Inc. Chap 3-8

Introduction to Biostatistics Using SPSS

 Mode
• The measurement that occurs most often ( with the
highest frequency )
• Commonly used as a measure of popularity.
• There can be more than 1 mode.
– Unimodal, bimodal or multimodal
• Not influence by extreme measurements.
• Applicable for both qualitative and quantitative data.

Introduction to Biostatistics Using SPSS

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

No Mode
Mode = 9

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Mode = 5, 12
© 2002 Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Chap 3-10
Introduction to Biostatistics Using SPSS
 Measures of Variability
• It is not sufficient to describe a data set using only
measures of central tendency
• Need to determine how dispersed/ spread out the data
is.
• Measures of variability/spread includes
– Range
– Percentile / Quartile
– Deviation / Standard Deviation (sisihan piawai)
– Variance
– Coefficient of variation

Introduction to Biostatistics Using SPSS

 Range
• Measure of variation
• The difference between the largest and the
smallest measurement / observations of the
set.
• It is easy to compute but very sensitive to
outliers.
• Does not give much information about the
pattern of variability
• Ignores the way in which data are distributed
Introduction to Biostatistics Using SPSS
 Range  X Largest  X Smallest

Range = 12 - 7 = 5 Range = 12 - 7 = 5

7 8 9 10 11 12 7 8 9 10 11 12

© 2002 Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Chap 3-13
Introduction to Biostatistics Using SPSS
 Percentile / Quartile
• The pth percentile of a set of n measurements
arranged in order of magnitude is that value
that has at most p% of the measurements
below it and at most ( 100 – p ) % above it.
• Example: 60th percentile has 60% of the data
below it and 40% above it.
• Percentile of interest are the 25th, 50th, 75th,
percentiles often called the lower quartile,
median, and upper quartile.
• Interquartile range – difference between the
upper and lower quartile
Introduction to Biostatistics Using SPSS
© 2002 Prentice-Hall, Inc. Chap 3-15

Quartiles
• Split Ordered Data into 4 Quarters
25% 25% 25% 25%

 Q1   Q3   Q2 
i  n  1
• Position of i-th Quartile  Qi   4
Data in Ordered Array: 11 12 13 16 16 17 18 21 22

1 9  1 12  13
Position of Q1   2.5 Q1   12.5
4 2
Q1 Q3
• Q and are Measures of Noncentral Location
• 2
= Median, A Measure of Central Tendency
Introduction to Biostatistics Using SPSS
 Skewness
• Relationship of the mode, median, mean and trimmed
mean is reflected through the skewness of the data.
• Skewness of the data measures how the data is
distributed.
• Zero Skewness
– symmetrical ( Mode = Median = Mean)
• Positive Skewness
– skewed to the right ( Mode < Median < Mean )
• Negative Skewness
– skewed to the left ( Mode > Median > Mean )

Introduction to Biostatistics Using SPSS

 Distribution Shape and
Box-and-Whisker Plot
Left-Skewed Symmetric Right-Skewed

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q1Q2Q3 Q1 Q2 Q3

© 2002 Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Chap 3-17
Introduction to Biostatistics Using SPSS
 Skewness
Positively or right skewed Negatively or left skewed
35 50
30
40
25
20 30
15 20
10
10
5
0 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Mode<Median<Mean Mean<Median<Mode
Symmetrical
25

20

15

10

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Mode=Median=Mean
Introduction to Biostatistics Using SPSS
 Variance and Standard
Deviation
• The variance of a set of n measurements y1, y2, … ,yn with
mean y is the sum of the squared deviations divided by n
– 1.  x 2
2
 ( x  x)
2
x 
n
 2
 
n 1 n 1
• The standard deviation of a set of measurement is
defined to be the positive square root of the variance.
  2
• Both measure how spread out the data is from the mean.

Introduction to Biostatistics Using SPSS

 Comparing Standard Deviations

Data A
Mean = 15.5
s = 3.338
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

Data B
Mean = 15.5

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 s = .9258

Data C
Mean = 15.5

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 s = 4.57
© 2002 Prentice-Hall, Inc. Chap 3-20

Introduction to Biostatistics Using SPSS

 Coefficient of Variation
• Measures the variability in the values in a
population relative to the magnitude of the
population mean.
• CV = Standard Deviation
|Mean|
• The CV is a unit-free number, it is useful when
comparing variation of different sets of data.

Introduction to Biostatistics Using SPSS

 Comparing Coefficient of Variation
• Stock A:
– Average price last year = $50
– Standard deviation = $5
• Stock B:
– Average price last year = $100
– Standard deviation = $5
• Coefficient of variation:
– Stock A: S   $5 
CV   100%   100%  10%
X   $50 

– Stock B: S   $5 
CV   100%   100%  5%
© 2002 Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Chap 3-22 X   $100 
Introduction to Biostatistics Using SPSS
• How/where to get descriptive statistics?
– Analyze -> reports or descriptive statistics

Introduction to Biostatistics Using SPSS

Introduction to Biostatistics Using SPSS
• Analyze -> reports -> case summary

Introduction to Biostatistics Using SPSS

Introduction to Biostatistics Using SPSS
Introduction to Biostatistics Using SPSS
Introduction to Biostatistics Using SPSS
Introduction to Biostatistics Using SPSS
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