MEASURES OF DISPERSION

Dr. OMIMA ABDALLA BASHIER

assistant professor of community
medicine
 In many instances we need to summarize data
by using a few numbers.
 This session illustrates the common statistics
used to summarize data or describe
characteristics of a set of data-often called
descriptive statistics.
 MEASURES OF DISPERSION
 There are several measures of dispersion, the most
common being the standard deviation.
 These measures indicate to what degree the individual
observations of a data set are dispersed or 'spread out'
around their mean
 MEASURES OF DISPERSION
 When we use them we have a better idea of the
distribution of a spread of individual items around the
central location, we will need to know something about the
statistics that measure this degree of spread (dispersion,
variation).
 When the dispersion is large, the" values are widely
scattered; when it is small they are tightly clustered
 Range
• The range of a sample (or a data set) is a measure of
the spread or the dispersion of the observations.
• It is easy to determine once the data have been
arranged in rank order.
• It is the difference between the largest and the
smallest observed value .
 Variance
 it is the measure of dispersion relative to the scatter of
the values about their mean is known as the variance.
 The scale of measurement for the variance is the square
of the units in which the variable was measured so it is
not a very useful measure of dispersion
 Standard Deviation )SD(
 Standard deviation is a measure of the spread
or dispersion of a set of data
 . Standard deviation is a statistical measure of
spread or variability.
 The standard deviation is the square root of the
square of deviation of the values from their
arithmetic mean. ( square root of variance )
 Cont
 . The variance is defined as The square of the
standard deviation

 10, 15, 25, 50, 100 mean = 40

 38, 39, 40, 41, 42 mean = 40

 10, 15, 25, 50, 100 mean = 40

 38, 39, 40, 41, 42 mean = 40

S
)X-M(
2
)X-M( M X

4 2- 3 1

1 1- 3 2

0 0 3 3

1 1 3 4

4 2 3 5
 S calculation
 To find the Standard deviation of 1,2,3,4,5.

 Step 1: Calculate the mean and deviation

 Step 2:Find the sum of (X-M)2
4+1+0+1+4 = 10
 Step 3:N = 5, the total number of values.
 Find N-1….5-1 = 4

 Using formula S=1.58113

 Inter-Quartile Range "(IQR)

 The inter-quartile range is a measure of the spread of

or dispersion within a data set.
 A measure of variation that makes use of percentiles
is the interquartile range, defined as the difference
between the 25th and 75th percentiles also called the
first and third quartiles respectively
 Frequency table
Heart rate variation to deep breathing in 10-point intervals
fx Frequency Mid point Interval
(f) of class
(x) (15 46)  (2570)...  (9533)
690 46 15 20–11 580
1750 70 25 30–21
3780 108 35 31-40
=49.12
4770 106 45 41-50
4070 74 55 51-60
4680 72 65 61-70
3150 42 75 71-80
2465 29 85 81-90
3135 33 95 91-100

28490 580 Total

 Quantiles
 Quantiles are a set of 'cut points' that divide a sample
of data into groups containing (as far as possible)
equal numbers of observations.
 Examples of quantiles include quartile, quintile,

percentile.
 Quartiles
 Quartiles are values that divide a sample of data into
four groups containing (as far as possible) equal
numbers of observations.
 = lies within the lowest 25%,
 (Q2) = 50%,
 (Q3) = 75%,
 (Q4) = is at least higher than 75%
 Quartiles Example

• Data: 6 47 49 15 43 41 7 39 43 41 36

• first: Ordered Data (ascending or descending :

6 7 15 36 39 41 41 43 43 47 49
• (Q1) Lower quartile =

• N+1 x 1/4 = 11+1 =12 x1/4 = 3 ( rank of Q1 ) = 15 =

• (Q2) second quartile (median) = N+1 = 12 x2/4 =6

=(11+1/2 = 12/2= 6 ( rank of Q2 )= 41
• (Q3) =Upper quartile N+1 x ¾ = 12 X3/4 =3X3=9 rank of
Q3 == 43
 Inter quartile range (IQR)
 IQR – is a measure of variation that makes use of
percentiles
 IQR is defined as the difference between the third(75 th
percentile) and first quartiles(25th percentile)

Interquartile range = Q3 - Q1
 .Cont

 Describes the spread of the middle 50% of the data

(Median: Divides distribution in half. 50/50)

 Distribution can also be divided in quarters:

25/25/25/25
 Coefficient of variation (CV)
 • Is the ratio of standard deviation of a series to the
arithmetic mean of the series
 C.V is unit less and is expressed as a percentage.
 CV is the measureof relative dispersion.
 • It comparing the variation of two or more quantitative
data sets that are on different scales or units .
 C.V example
 if we want to compare the variability between the
mean weight and mean height of specific group of
population, normally by using the measurement of
disperation it very difficult to do it, but by using the
Coefficient of variation we can compare the different
measurement of different units and scales, because CV
adjusts the scale so that a sensible comparison can be
made o.
 C.V example
 compare variability of weight ( mean =120 lb, sd=24 lb)

and variability in the height ( mean = 66 in sd= 6 in) of 100

students = Coefficient of variation formula (CV )

CV = S D / mean x 100%
 CV weight = 28/ 140X (100%) = 20%
 CV height =6/ 66 X (100%) = 9%
 Based on CV, the relative spread of weight among
students is greater than height