Statistics Idiots Guide!

Dr. Hamda Qotba, B.Med.Sc,

M.D, ABCM

Definition
Statistics is the science of collecting,
organizing, summarising, analysing,
and making inference from data

Descriptive stat. Includes

collecting, organizing,
summarising, analysing,
and presenting data

Inferential stat. Includes

Making inferences,
hypothesis testing
Determining relationship,
and making prediction
Dr.H.Qotba

Variables

Quantitative
Discrete
Continuous

Qualitative
Ordinal
Categorical

Dr.H.Qotba

Parametric Vs.
non parametric tests
Parametric: decision making method
where the distribution of the
sampling statistic is known
Non-Parametric: decision making
method which does not require
knowledge of the distribution of the
sampling statistic
Dr.H.Qotba

t-Test
Compare the means of a continuous
variable into samples in order to
determine whether or not the
difference between the 2 expected
means exceed the difference that
would be expected by chance
What is probability the mean will differ?
Dr.H.Qotba

Requirements
The observations are independent
Drawn from normally distributed
population
Sample size < 30 if its >30 use
normal curve z test (binomial test)

Dr.H.Qotba

Types of t-Test
One sample t test: test if a sample mean for a
variable differs significantly from the given
population with a known mean
Unpaired or independent t test: test if the
population means estimated by independent 2
samples differ significantly (group of male and
group of female)
Paired t test: test if the population means
estimated by dependent samples differ
significantly (mean of pre and post treatment
for same set of patients
Dr.H.Qotba

chi test
Used to test strength of association
between qualitative variables
Used for categorical data

Dr.H.Qotba

Requirements
Data should be in form of frequency
Total number of observed must exceed 20
Expected frequency in one category or in
any cell must be >5 (When 1 of the cells have <5
in observed yats correction) or if (When 1 of the cells
have <5 in expected fischer exact)

The group compared must be

approximately the same
Dr.H.Qotba

Correlation and Regression

Methods to study magnitude of the
association and the functional
relationship between two or more
variables

Dr.H.Qotba

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Correlation
Denote strength of relationship between variables

Dr.H.Qotba

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Regression
Method thats indicate a mathematical
relationship between a dependant and
one or more independent variables
Simple linear regression and multiple
regression are appropriate for
continuous variables like(BP, Weight)
Logistic regression applicable for
binary response like alive/dead
Dr.H.Qotba

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Measures
If parametric
Pearson correlation coeff.
Continuous variables
Linear relationship

If nonparametric
Spearman rank
Both variables are continuous

Kendalls tau
Two ordinal or one ordinal one continuous

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ANOVA
is used to uncover the main and
interaction effects of categorical
independent variables (called "factors")
on an interval dependent variable

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Types of ANOVA
One-way ANOVA tests differences in
a single interval dependent variable
among two, three, or more groups
formed by the categories of a single
categorical independent variable.

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 Two-way ANOVA analyzes one interval

dependent in terms of the categories
(groups) formed by two independents, one
of which may be conceived as a control
variable
Multivariate or n-way ANOVA. To
generalize, n-way ANOVA deals with n
independents. It should be noted that as
the number of independents increases, the
number of potential interactions proliferates
Dr.H.Qotba

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How to select appropriate

statistical test
Type of variables
Quantitative (blood pres.)
Qualitative (gender)

Type of research question

Association
Comparison
Risk factor

Data structure
Independent
Paired
matched

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Body of research question

Association of 2 variable(dep, indep)
Types of variable
Dependent
independent

Test

categorical

categorical

chi-square

categorical

Quantitative

Log. regression

Quantitative

categorical

2 out come T test

3+out come ANOVA

Quantitative

Quantitative

Spearman Correlation
linear Regression

Dr.H.Qotba

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Comparing (difference) variables

Variable

Number of independent variable

2 groups
paired data
>2groups

Quantitative

T test

Ordinal

MannWhitney

Categorical chi-square*

Paired T test

ANOVA

Wilcoxon

Kruskal
wallis

McNemar

chi-square

* When 1 of the cells have <5 in expected fischer exact

When 1 of the cells have <5 in observed yats correction
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Looking for Risk Factor

Types of variables
Test
Dependent
several indepen.

categorical

categorical

Multiple log.
Regression

quantitative

categorical

ANOVA

quantitative

quantitative

Linear, log
regression

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