Professional Documents
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Types of Variables
Categorical (data that are counted)
Nominal
Ordinal
Quantitative or Numerical (data that
are measured)
Interval
Ratio
Nominal
In medicine, nominal variables are often
used to describe the patient. Examples of
nominal variables might include:
Ordinal
Variables that have an inherent order to the
relationship
among the different categories
same
Note: the
The scale
of measurement for most ordinal variables is called a
Likert scale.
Ordinal
In medicine, ordinal variables often describe
the patients characteristics, attitude,
behavior, or status. Examples of ordinal
variables might include:
Types of Variables:
Quantitative/Numerical
Interval
Variables that have constant, equal
distances between values, but the zero point
is arbitrary.
Examples of interval variables:
Ratio
Variables have equal intervals between
values, the zero point is meaningful, and the
numerical relationships between numbers is
meaningful.
Examples of ratio variables:
Pulse rate
Respiratory rate
Levels of Measurement
Higher
Discrete Data
Quantitative or Numerical variables that are
measured in each individual in a data set,
but can only be whole numbers.
Examples are counts of objects or
occurrences:
Number of children in
household
Number of relapses
Number of admissions to a
Continuous Data
Quantitative or Numerical variables that are
measured in each individual in a data set.
Continuous variables can theoretically take on
an infinite number of values - the accuracy of
the measurement is limited only by the
measuring instrument.
Note: Continuous data often include decimals or fractions of numbers.
Continuous Data
Examples of continuous variables:
Height, weight, heart rate, blood
pressure, serum cholesterol, age,
temperature
A persons height may be measured and
recorded as 60 cm, but in theory the true
height could be an infinite number of values:
height may be
60.123456789..cm
or
59.892345678..cm
PTCA
(n=915)
61.1 3.2
61.8 3.7
80.9 5.6
78.8 6.0
676 (74%)
238 (26%)
668 (73%)
247 (27%)
192 (21%)
457 (50%)
165 (18%)
100 (11%)
192 (21%)
458 (50%)
165 (18%)
100 (11%)
4.0 0.6
3.8 0.6
902 (98.7%)
12 (1.3%)
898 (98.1%)
17 (1.9%)
Variable
Type of
Variable