Dr.

Hamza

Zahraa tajali

Khaled aldosery
Please refer to the slides as they are not included in the sheet.

The doctor began the lecture by revising what we talked about the
last time:

 Biostatistics is the means of organizing and summarizing the

data and then coming up with conclusions regarding the
populations, because it's impossible for any researcher to study
the entire population (millions of people) so instead researchers
collect data from smaller samples then the findings can be
made into conclusions regarding the population however we
can't be 100% sure that the result we got applies perfectly to
the population, there's always a chance for error.

-Usually in health researches (medicine, dentistry, nursery,..) are okay

with certain margin of error and the acceptable limit is up to 5% of
margin error  this is what we call alpha (α)

 α = 0.05

What does 0.05 mean?

- It means when I ask a research question and I pick a sample from a

population of interest and then I run some tests on this sample and
then I come up with a conclusion/answer to my research question
regarding certain two variables applied on the population. I can be up
to 95% sure that my answer is correct, but we still have 5% chance of
error because of chance/accident.

Why do we accept up to 5% of error? Because if you want to make

your error percentage zero you have to enlarge your sample size to
include the entire population which is near impossible and even if you
did, it will consume a lot of time that the phenomenon itself might
have changed. (We need to be realistic and work on something
doable that a has a scientific value without a lot of error so we accept
only up to 5%)

**in the exam the doctor will tell you what α is so pay attention to
the question don’t always assume it's 0.05, you need to know where
to look in the table and how to integrate the data based on what level
of confidence is assigned in the question.

-The purpose of biostatistics is to test hypothesis in quantitative

researches and at the end we decide whether to accept or reject the
null hypothesis.

 Research has two main branches (Each one has its own
importance and uses):

1- Quantitative research

2- Qualitative research  does not rely on numbers and hypothesis

whether it’s null hypothesis or researchers hypothesis. It used by
researchers to better understand a certain phenomenon that is not
well understood. Researchers choose a very small sample of
people and they don’t care if this sample really represent the
population because they are not looking for generalization of the
findings but to understand a certain problem better. In this type of
study researchers interview the sample with open ended questions
ex:” tell me about your experience about that certain
problem/phenomenon”.

Another ex: a researcher wants to understand women experience

if they had an autist child, so the best type of study method here is
qualitative and the number of women in the sample is not
 important as 8 would be enough for example. The researcher
would be interviewing the women and ask them about their
experience with a child having autism and the women share their
stories. The whole interview is recorded and put into a certain
software that contain certain themes (exhaustion, embarrassment
,hopelessness for ex) then the software would match the
interviews of the woman with the themes.

How do we prove that qualitative research is real? Not based on

numbers or alpha etc… but it’s based on quotations from sample
experience. The authenticity and credibility of the findings depend
completely on what the person say in the interview.

Basically qualitative research is considered a primary step in

understanding a certain phenomenon, then research can be
expanded using quantitative research.

Europe mostly depend on qualitative type whereas the US depend on

quantitative and Jordan follow the steps of the US.

**Biostatistics is all about the quantitative research and less for

qualitative, so the more qualitative research you do the less you are
associated with biostatistics.

The main purpose of biostatistics in quantitative research is to test a

certain hypothesis whether to accept null hypothesis which is bad or
to reject null hypothesis which is good. We always seek to reject null
hypothesis.

 Biostatistics has two steps/types:

1- Descriptive statistics  just to summarize and organise pure raw

data (Mean, median, mode, range, standard deviation) and it's
only about the sample not the entire population. (cannot be
generalized on the population)
2-Inferential statistics  uses descriptive statistics in equations to
get test statistics (T test, chi square,…) then we make the decision to
accept or reject the hypothesis.

-Choosing to accept or reject the hypothesis is based on the numbers

and not the personal opinion of the researcher

Inference: means finding/conclusion to be generalized on the

entire population.

 Hypothesis: is a statement I write at the beginning of my

research study in which I try to guess the correct answer to my
research question before I begin collecting the data.

We call it HA or H1 ,which is the answer to my question before

starting the research then I write the exact opposite of my guessed
answer and we call it the null hypothesis H0

Example: HA : there is a relationship

H0 : there is no relationship  we write the null hypothesis

at the beginning of my research and I can either accept it  No
relationship

Or reject it (which is what we want)  there is a relationship

** This is why I aim to reject the hypothesis (rejection is good news

it means my guessed answer was right)

We always refer to H0 when we talk about rejecting or accepting a

hypothesis to standardise the method of research globally.
- We can write the hypothesis using words or using mathematics like:
HA: P1=P2 and H0: P1 ≠ P2

-After I make the decision to accept or reject the null hypothesis

there's always a chance for error (wrong decision).

 Types of errors: (wink wink (^_<) )

1- Type I error (α)  Reject H0 when it was true. (should have

accepted it)

2- Type II error (β)  Accept H0 when it was false. (should have

rejected it)

**To help you memorize it the doctor gave an example:

A research to see if a lady is pregnant or not, using a special test.

HA: pregnant

H0: not pregnant

An obviously pregnant lady walks in and the doctor runs a certain test
he invented on her then he tells her she's not pregnant  He
accepted the null hypothesis when it was false (Type II error)

Then a man walks in and the doctor runs the test on him then tells
him that he is pregnant  He rejected the null hypothesis when it
was true (Type I error)

**so remember that the man was type I error and the lady was type
II error to remember what each one means.
- We only accept a margin of 5% of type I error. α = 0.05 And

we only accept a margin of 20% of type II error. β = 0.20

**type II error is less dangerous than type I error.

(1-α)= level of confidence = 95% confident that I'm right that there is
a relationship between the 2 variables) (5% chance of error)

(1-β)= level of confidence = 80% of confidence about my findings

Power= level of confidence. (20% chance of error)

**remember if you want to decrease the error you have to enlarge
you sample.

 There are two types of inferential statistical tests:

1- Parametric (T test, ANOVA): Better than non-parametric, more

powerful and more flexible but they need a certain conditions to be
able to use them 

1- Dependent variables should be continuous. (most important

condition)
2- Sample should be from a normally distributed populations.
3- Equal variance (Homogeneity of variance) (it has a certain
test called levene’s test)

2- Non-Parametric (Chi square, Mann whitney, kruskal wallis): less

powerful and flexible but they are still valid and good, we use them if
the parametric conditions didn’t apply to my sample.
  Types of Variables:

1- Continuous: like age we can say I am 22 or 22 and half years old

(any number or any fraction is accepted)

2- Categorical:

1- Dichotomous  you only have 2 options (male or female)

2- Nominal  you have more than 2 options and they don’t

have to be in order. (Like occupation: doctor, nurse,
engineer)

3- Ordinal  you have more than 2 options and they have to be

order. (bachelor, masters, PhD)

There is a scale called likert scale:

(very satisfied,satisfied,neutral,unsatisfied,very unsatisfied) some

researchers consider it continuous but it’s better considered as
ordinal)