Statistics HAS 3150
Sources of knowing Tenacity Intuition Authority Personal experience Reasoning Deductive Inductive
Why collect facts? Exploratory research Confirmatory research
Some terms Reliability Validity
Probability = 3/6 or ½ or 50% = 3/6 x 2/5 = 1/5 or 20%
Dog Owners and Heart Attacks 92 people had a heart attack 78 survived 14 did not 53 were dog owners 39 were not
Dogs and Heart Attacks Dog Owners Non-owners Survived heart attack 50/ / / Didn’t make it 3/ / / / /
Power Probability of making a correct decision Three factors The Alpha level The sample size The effect size
An example… NPower
Power False positives False negatives
Risk Assessment
Risk Perception Control Knowledge Catastrophes Dreadness and knowability
Cost Benefit Analysis
Vital Statistics Births Deaths Marriages and divorces Spontaneous fetal deaths and abortions
The Census How many people Age-adjusted or age-specific Sex-specific Race-specific Every 10 years Sampling versus population
National Center for Health Statistics
Accuracy and availability “…the Government [is] very keen on amassing statistics. They collect them, add them, raise them to the nth power, take the cubed root and prepare wonderful diagrams. But you must never forget that every one of those figures comes in the first instance from the village watchman, who just puts down what he pleases.” British economist Sir Josiah Stamp ( )
Confidentiality HIPAA
Risk Factors Biological Environmental Lifestyle Psychosocial Access to health services
Analyzing Risk Factors Determinants Direct contributing factors Indirect contributing factors
Measuring Health Mortality-based indicators Crude mortality rates Age-specific mortality rates Life Expectancy Infant mortality
Measuring Health Morbidity and disability measures Used less Prevalence and Incidence
Jeopardy