Analysis and

Interpretation
Sathya Karunananthan
HSS3101B
LECTURE 7

1
The Research Process: 12 Steps
Topics
• Descriptive and Inferential Statistics
• Reporting statistical methods and results

3
Descriptive and
Inferential Statistics

4
Descriptive statistics
• Describing, summarizing and displaying the data we have collected
• Understanding patterns in our data
• Do not allow us to draw conclusions beyond the available data

5
Types of data
• Dichotomous (two categories)
 Sex
• Nominal (unordered categories)
 Gender, Blood group, Immigrant status
• Ordinal (ordered categories)
 Income level, stage of cancer, level of satisfaction
• Discrete
 Number of children, number of hospital visits
• Continuous
 Blood pressure, height, weight, age
6
Frequency distribution
• Table or graph presentation of the frequency of each possible response
N %
Sex Male 143 47.7
Female 157 52.3
Patient overall 1 10 3.3
satisfaction
2 39 13
3 134 44.7
4 90 30
5 27 9

7
Frequency distribution
Patient overall satisfaction for services
received in the ER
160

140
134
120

100

80 90
N

60

40
39
20 27

0 10
1 2 3 4 5

Patient Satisfaction

8
Central tendency and Variability
• Central tendency and variability are common methods of summarising
discrete and continuous data
• Central tendency:
• Where most values are
• Variability
• How spread out the values are

9
Measures of central tendency
• Mean
• Median
• Mode

10
Mean, median and mode in normally
distributed data

11
Mean, median and mode in skewed data

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Measures of Variability
• Range
• Percentile
• Interquartile Range (IQR)
• Variance
• Standard Deviation

13
Measures of Variability:
Range & Percentile
• Range
 Interval between the minimum and maximum value
• Percentiles
 Divide a distribution into 100 parts such that each is equal to 1 per cent of
the area under the curve. These parts are known as percentiles.
 For example, as described previously, the median divides the distribution
into two equal areas. It therefore represents the 50th centile.

14
Measures of variability:
Interquartile Range
• Interquartile range (IQR)
 Lower and upper ends of the distribution are eliminated
 The interquartile range shows the location of most of the data and
is less affected by outliers
 Good method of summarising variability when dealing with
ordinal data or distributions that are not “normal”.

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Measures of Variability:
Interquartile Range

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Measures of Variability: Variance
• Variance
 A measure of spread that indicates how different the individual
values are from the mean
 Take the difference of each value from the mean
 Square each of these differences
 Add them all up
 And divide by the number of observations

17
Measures of Variability:
Standard Deviation
• Standard Deviation
 Variance does not have the same units as the original observations
 To return to the units of original observations, the square root of the
variance can be calculated - this is known as the standard deviation (SD)
 Has the same units as the variables measured originally
 If the SD is small then the data points are close to one another, whereas a
large SD indicates there is a lot of variation between individual values

18
Normal distribution divided into multiples of
the standard deviation

When the data distribution is normal, or nearly so,

• 68.3% of the data lies +/− 1 SD from the mean;
• 95.4% between +/− 2 SD;
• 99.7% between +/− 3 SD
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Descriptive statistics –
« Table 1 »
• Presents descriptive statistics that allow the reader to understand the
sample characteristics
•The distribution of participants across exposure groups
• The distribution other important characteristics / potential confounders
• The distribution of the outcome variable at the beginning of the study (baseline)
• Cross tabulation of exposure and confounders
• Includes measures of central tendency and variability
• Should not include statistical tests
Example of Table 1

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Example of Table 1 (contd)

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23
Inferential statistics

24
Interferential statistics
• Inferential statistics are techniques that allow us to use samples to make
inferences about the populations from which the samples were drawn.
• Example: We are interested in the sample mean because it is the natural
estimator of the unknown population mean

25
Confidence intervals
• The sample mean is a point estimate of a population mean
• To gain insight on its precision, we surround the point estimate with a
margin of error, computed from the data
• The margin of error comes with a confidence level that gives the
probability that the interval will cover the population mean

26
27
General Principles for Reporting Statistical
Methods
• Preliminary analysis
• Primary analysis
• Supplementary analyses

Lang & Altman, The SAMPL Guidelines

28
Reporting Statistical Methods:
Primary Analysis
• Describe the purpose of the analysis
• Identify the variables used in the analysis and summarize each with
descriptive statistics
• When possible, identify the smallest difference considered to be clinically
important
• Describe fully the main methods for analyzing the primary objectives of the
study
• Make clear which method was used for each analysis, rather than just listing
in one place all the statistical methods used
Lang & Altman, The SAMPL Guidelines
29
Reporting Statistical Methods:
Primary Analysis
• Verify that that data conformed to the assumptions of the test used to analyze
them
• Indicate whether and how any allowance or adjustments were made for
multiple comparisons (performing multiple hypothesis tests on the same data)
• If relevant, report how any outlying data were treated in the analysis
• Say whether tests were one- or two-tailed and justify the use of one-tailed tests
• Report the alpha level (e.g., 0.05) that defines statistical significance
• Name the statistical package or program used in the analysis
Lang & Altman, The SAMPL Guidelines
30
31
General Principles for Reporting Statistical
Results
• Numbers and descriptive statistics
• Risks, rates, and ratios
• Hypothesis tests
• Association analyses
• Correlation analyses
• Regression analyses
• Analyses of variance (ANOVA) or of covariance (ANCOVA)
• Survival (time-to-event) analyses
• Bayesian analyses
Lang & Altman, The SAMPL Guidelines 32
Reporting Numbers and
Descriptive Statistics
• Report numbers with an appropriate degree of precision
• Report total sample and group sizes for each analysis
• Report numerators and denominators for all percentages
• Normally distributed data: summarize with means and standard deviations
(SD). Use the form: mean (SD), not mean ± SD
• Data that are not normally distributed: summarize with medians and
interpercentile ranges, ranges, or both.
• Display data in tables or figures. Tables present exact values, and figures
provide an overall assessment of the data.
Lang & Altman, The SAMPL Guidelines 33
Reporting Hypothesis Tests
• State the hypothesis being tested
• Identify the variables in the analysis and summarize the data for each
variable with the appropriate descriptive statistics
• If possible, identify the minimum difference considered to be clinically
important
• Identify the name of the test used in the analysis. Report whether the test was
one- or two-tailed (justify the use of one-tailed tests) and for paired or
independent samples
• Confirm that the assumptions of the test were met by the data
Lang & Altman, The SAMPL Guidelines 34
Reporting Hypothesis Tests
• Report the alpha level (e.g., 0.05) that defines statistical significance.
• At least for primary outcomes, report a measure of precision - 95% confidence
interval.
• Use the 95% confidence coefficient to report precision of the estimate
• Although not preferred to confidence intervals, if desired, P-values should be reported
as equalities when possible and to one or two decimal places
• e.g., P = 0.03 or 0.22 not P < 0.05 or “NS”
• Report whether and how any adjustments were made for multiple statistical
comparisons
• Name the statistical software package used in the analysis
Lang & Altman, The SAMPL Guidelines 35