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Hcs/438 Dq's Essay

Decent Essays

HCS/438 DQ’s
Week 1:
DQ1: What are the differences between descriptive and inferential statistics?
According to Bennett (2009), the biggest difference between descriptive and inferential statistics is that descriptive statistics "deals with describing raw data in the form of graphics and sample of statistics" and inferential statistics "deals with estimating population parameters from sample data." This means that inferential statistics would be an estimate because the data would be estimated from sample data rather than using specific data whereas descriptive statistics would be more accurate. An example of descriptive statistics would be trying to find an average of something such as a G.P.A. or your overall grade in a class. …show more content…

We come up with the number 7. 7 would be the mean in this case.
“The median is the middle value of the data set. To find a median we arrange the values in ascending (or descending) order, repeating data values that appear more than once. If the number of values is odd, there is exactly one value in the middle of the list, and this value is the median. If the number of values is even, there are two values in the middle of the list, and the median is the number that lies halfway between them. For an example the list 3, 4, 6, 6, 10. The median number is 6 because 6 is the middle number in the list.” (Bennett, Briggs, & Triola, 2009, p. 146).
“The mode is the most common value or group of values in a data set. For an example the mode in the number set 3, 4, 6, 6, 10 is 6 because this value occurs twice in the data set."(Bennett, Briggs, & Triola, 2009, p. 146).

We would use mean, median and mode in healthcare to find the average of many things such as how effective a new medication would be on the average population. Or how far into a new treatment patients start seeing results or improvements. Bennett, J.O., Briggs, W.L., & Triola, M.F. (2009). Statistical Reasoning for Everyday Life (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc

DQ2: Measures of variability are range, Interquartile range, variance, and standard deviation. Range is the difference between the highest and the lowest

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