Common Statistical Terms

Common statistical terms - One should remember following common statistical terms and notations before learning the methods in the statistics -

a. Population In statistics the word ‘population’ is used in a wider sense. It is not limited to a population of persons but can be used to refer any collection of objects. Population is an entire group of person or study objects - peoples, measurements, things in which we are interested at a specific time.

Population can be of two types finite or infinite.

Population consisting endless values i.e. non measurable is called as infinite.

Population with fixed number of values i.e. limited or measurable is finite.

For example, the data may relate to a sample of 25 Ayurvedic hospitals from the population

Data Data is a group of observations based on one or many samples. In medical statistics data mainly collected by Surveys, records, experiments etc. This collected data is used for study at various levels. This data undergoes analytical study to assess normal health parameters or disease situations. This statistical data can be classified into following two categories -

1) Qualitative or Discrete Data

2) Quantitative or Continuous Data

1) Qualitative or discrete data: When the data is collected on the basis of attributes or characteristics like cured, vaccinated, died, young, old, sex, malocclusion, on drugs and cavities etc., it is called as qualitative or discrete data. This cannot be measured, but classified into groups containing persons with same characteristics. The number of person having the same attribute are measured. In medical statistics qualitative data is used to determine drug action, to test or compare effects of medicine, vaccine, surgical procedure or treatment pattern. This is also useful for finding birth rates, death rates, still born, low birth weights at birth etc. Results obtained from analysis of this data is presented as rate, percentage, proportion or