Chapter 4

MEASURES FOR QUALITATIVE DATA

The Ratio
The ratio is defined as a fraction of the a/b, where a and be are the number of

elements that have different qualities within a variable of different variables.

The ratio express the quantitative relation between two qualities or two

variables, that is, how many elements have a given quality in regard to one

element having another quality.

For example: if in a hospital there are 300 nurses and 50 doctors, the ratio of
nurse to doctor express how many nurses there are by each doctor.

Ratio nurse/ doctors= a/b where a= number of nurses

b= number of doctors.

Ratio= 300/50= 6. The ration is 6 nurse per doctor

Other common ratios used in hospital are for instance:

•Ratio of bed/ward,

•Ratio of x-rays equipment/x- ray technician,

•Ratio of workers/beds,

•Ratio of nurses/bed, among many others.

The index
The index is defined as a ratio multiplied by 100. the index expresses a similar
relationship as the ratio but in relation to 100 elements.

The formula for computing an index is : a/b x 100.

Usually the indexes are used when the numerator is smaller than divisor. For
example, there is a common index used in the hospitals called bed occupancy
index. The index measures the number of beds occupied by in-patients in
relation to the total numbers of beds of hospital in given period of time. The
measure unit is bed-days; that is the quantity of beds in a day.

The adequate bed occupational index should be around 80-90 in-patient days
per 100 beds.
Example:
Suppose that in a hospital that has 50 bed, is wanted to know the bed
occupational index for a period of 30 days, during which the in-patients used a
total of 1000 bed-days.
bed−days in−pationts
Bed occupancy index = ×100
total bed−days of the hospital
Bed - days of in-patients= 1000
Bed - days of hospital in the given period = 50 x 30 = 1500
1000
Bed occupational index = x 100 = 66.6 in patient- days per 100 bed days.
1500
Another index used in surgical hospitals is the intra-hospital infection index, that
measures the quantity of intra-hospitalary infections in regard to the numbers of
clean surgical interventions in a given period of time. It’s computed by:

Intra-hospital infection index

𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑖𝑛−𝑝𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑝𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑠

= x100
𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑛 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑔𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠
The adequate intra-hospital infection should be under 6.5 infections per 100
clean surgical interventions performed.
The proportion
The proportion is defined as a fraction of the form a/N, where a is the number of
elements that have a characteristic and N the total number of elements.
For example, the proportion of nurses in the hospital, if a hospital has 1200
workers and of them 300 are nurses, would be
Proportion= a/N, where a = the number of nurses in the hospital =300
N= total number of worker= 1200
300 1
proportion of nurses= = = 0.25.
1200 4
The result could be expressed as 1/4 , that is one nurse per 4 workers, or 0.25
nurse per each worker.
The percentage
The percentage is defined as a proportion multiplied by 100.
It’s formula is :

P= a/N x 100.
In the previous example, the percentage of nurses in the hospital would be:
300
P= x 100= 25%
1200
The rate
The rate is defined as the relation between the number of the elements in which
occurs in a specific phenomenon and the total number of elements exposed to
the occurrence of the phenomenon.

The rate express the risk or possibility of occurrence of specific phenomenon in a

given population in given period of time
It’s calculated by the formula:
rate= a/N x 10n

Where: a = frequency in which the phenomenon or situation has

occurred in a given period of time.
N = number of person expose to the occurrence of the
phenomenon or situation in the same given period.
10n = multiplying factor in order to avoid having only
decimals in the results. as the divisor is always bigger than the
numerator. Any examples?
Chapter 5
Presentation of the data
Data presentation is the last step of processing. Once the data have been
classified and summarized it is necessary a proper presentation in order to
facilitate the analysis.

There are two types of presentation: the tabular presentation by mean of

statistical tables and graphical presentation by using of statistical graphs.

The statistical tables are the basic ways of data presentation complemented by
statistical graphs, in order to show the principal results stated on them.
Statistical tables
Statistical tables is the tabulation of the processed numerical data in order to
present them in comprehensive and summarized way.

Any statistical tables has three parts:

- title,

- body or the table properly, and

- footnote.
1- Title:

Title is the heading of the table and it’s ought to describe concisely the content
of the table. Thus the table has two main requirement: to be concise and to be
complete.

open page 75 to see the examples

2- The body. (the table properly).

The body of the table is the main part. The processed data is tabulated in. that is, it is stated in
rows and columns facilitating it’s analysis.

Main or matrix row: the first row and it’s used to write the heading of the columns, that is the
description of the content of each column.

open page 76.

3- Footnote.

Footnote Is the last part of the tables. It is written bellow the body, and it
comprises of the data stated in the table, as well as any complementary
information in order to clarify its contents.
Types of statistical tables:
According to the numbers of variables used in a tabular reoresentation the tables
are classified as:

 One-way tables,

 Two-way tables,

 three-way tables,

Four-way tables.
One-way table
One way tables only shows a variable, although it’s used frequently, it’s only
allows to analyze one variable.

see figure 5.2 in page 77

Two-way tables
The two way tables shows two variables. This type of tables is te most frequently uses .

see figure 5.3 in page 78.

In the example, it shows the sex by rows and the birth-weight by the columns.
Three-way tables
The three-way tables shows three variables. In this case it shows the diagnosis, the sex, and the
age.

See figure 5.4 in page 79

Four-way tables
In this type four variables are shown, usually two by columns and two by the
rows. They complicate even more the analysis and the interpretation of the data.