Data Analysis Basics:
Variables and Distribution
Goals
Describe the steps of descriptive
data analysis
Be able to define variables
Understand basic coding principles
Learn simple univariate data
analysis
Types of Variables
Continuous variables:
Always numeric
Can be any number, positive or negative
Examples: age in years, weight, blood pressure
readings, temperature, concentrations of
pollutants and other measurements
Categorical variables:
Information that can be sorted into categories
Types of categorical variables ordinal,
nominal and dichotomous (binary)
Categorical Variables:
Ordinal Variables
Ordinal variablea categorical variable
with some intrinsic order or numeric value
Examples of ordinal variables:
Education (no high school degree, HS degree,
some college, college degree)
Agreement (strongly disagree, disagree,
neutral, agree, strongly agree)
Rating (excellent, good, fair, poor)
Frequency (always, often, sometimes, never)
Any other scale (On a scale of 1 to 5...)
Categorical Variables:
Nominal Variables
Nominal variable a categorical
variable without an intrinsic order
Examples of nominal variables:
Where a person lives in the U.S. (Northeast,
South, Midwest, etc.)
Sex (male, female)
Nationality (American, Mexican, French)
Race/ethnicity (African American, Hispanic,
White, Asian American)
Favorite pet (dog, cat, fish, snake)
Categorical Variables:
Dichotomous Variables
Dichotomous (or binary) variables a
categorical variable with only 2 levels of
categories
Often represents the answer to a yes or no
question
For example:
Did you attend the church picnic on May 24?
Did you eat potato salad at the picnic?
Anything with only 2 categories
Coding
Coding process of translating information
gathered from questionnaires or other
sources into something that can be analyzed
Involves assigning a value to the information
givenoften value is given a label
Coding can make data more consistent:
Example: Question = Sex
Answers = Male, Female, M, or F
Coding will avoid such inconsistencies
Coding Systems
Common coding systems (code and label) for
dichotomous variables:
0=No 1=Yes
(1 = value assigned, Yes= label of value)
OR: 1=No 2=Yes
When you assign a value you must also make it
clear what that value means
In first example above, 1=Yes but in second example
1=No
As long as it is clear how the data are coded, either is fine
You can make it clear by creating a data dictionary
to accompany the dataset
Coding: Dummy Variables
A dummy variable is any variable that is
coded to have 2 levels (yes/no, male/female,
etc.)
Dummy variables may be used to represent
more complicated variables
Example: # of cigarettes smoked per week--answers
total 75 different responses ranging from 0 cigarettes
to 3 packs per week
Can be recoded as a dummy variable:
1=smokes (at all) 0=non-smoker
This type of coding is useful in later stages of
analysis
Coding:
Attaching Labels to Values
Many analysis software packages allow you to
attach a label to the variable values
Example: Label 0s as male and 1s as female
Makes reading data output easier:
Without label: Variable SEX Frequency Percent
021 60%
114 40%
With label:Variable SEX Frequency Percent
Male 21 60%
Female 14 40%
Coding- Ordinal Variables
Coding process is similar with other categorical
variables
Example: variable EDUCATION, possible coding:
0 = Did not graduate from high school
1 = High school graduate
2 = Some college or post-high school education
3 = College graduate
Could be coded in reverse order (0=college
graduate, 3=did not graduate high school)
For this ordinal categorical variable we want to
be consistent with numbering because the
value of the code assigned has significance
Coding Ordinal Variables
(cont.)
Example of bad coding:
0 = Some college or post-high school education
1 = High school graduate
2 = College graduate
3 = Did not graduate from high school
Data has an inherent order but coding
does not follow that orderNOT
appropriate coding for an ordinal
categorical variable
Coding: Nominal Variables
For coding nominal variables, order
makes no difference
Example: variable RESIDE
1 = Northeast
2 = South
3 = Northwest
4 = Midwest
5 = Southwest
Order does not matter, no ordered value
associated with each response
Coding: Continuous Variables
Creating categories from a continuous variable
(ex. age) is common
May break down a continuous variable into
chosen categories by creating an ordinal
categorical variable
Example: variable = AGECAT
1 = 09 years old
2 = 1019 years old
3 = 2039 years old
4 = 4059 years old
5 = 60 years or older
Coding:
Continuous Variables (cont.)
May need to code responses from fill-in-the-
blank and open-ended questions
Example: Why did you choose not to see a doctor
about this illness?
One approach is to group together responses
with similar themes
Example: didnt feel sick enough to see a doctor,
symptoms stopped, and illness didnt last very long
Could all be grouped together as illness was not
severe
Also need to code for dont know responses
Typically, dont know is coded as 9
Coding Tip
Though you do not code until the
data is gathered, you should think
about how you are going to code
while designing your
questionnaire, before you gather
any data. This will help you to
collect the data in a format you
can use.
Data Cleaning
One of the first steps in analyzing data is to
clean it of any obvious data entry errors:
Outliers? (really high or low numbers)
Example: Age = 110 (really 10 or 11?)
Value entered that doesnt exist for variable?
Example: 2 entered where 1=male, 0=female
Missing values?
Did the person not give an answer? Was answer
accidentally not entered into the database?
Data Cleaning (cont.)
May be able to set defined limits when entering
data
Prevents entering a 2 when only 1, 0, or missing are
acceptable values
Limits can be set for continuous and nominal
variables
Examples: Only allowing 3 digits for age, limiting words
that can be entered, assigning field types (e.g. formatting
dates as mm/dd/yyyy or specifying numeric values or text)
Many data entry systems allow double-entry ie.,
entering the data twice and then comparing both
entries for discrepancies
Univariate data analysis is a useful way to check
the quality of the data
Univariate Data Analysis
Univariate data analysis-explores each
variable in a data set separately
Serves as a good method to check the
quality of the data
Inconsistencies or unexpected results
should be investigated using the original
data as the reference point
Frequencies can tell you if many study
participants share a characteristic of
interest (age, gender, etc.)
Graphs and tables can be helpful
Univariate Data Analysis
(cont.)
Examining continuous variables can give
you important information:
Do all subjects have data, or are values
missing?
Are most values clumped together, or is
there a lot of variation?
Are there outliers?
Do the minimum and maximum values make
sense, or could there be mistakes in the
coding?
Univariate Data Analysis
(cont.)
Commonly used statistics with univariate
analysis of continuous variables:
Mean average of all values of this variable in
the dataset
Median the middle of the distribution, the
number where half of the values are above and
half are below
Mode the value that occurs the most times
Range of values from minimum value to
maximum value
Statistics describing a
continuous variable
distribution
84 = Maximum (an
outlier)
36 = Median (50th
Percentile)
33 = Mean
28 = Mode (Occurs
twice)
2 = Minimum
Standard Deviation
Figure left: narrowly distributed age values (SD = 7.6)
Figure right: widely distributed age values (SD = 20.4)
Distribution and Percentiles
Distribution curves for variable AGE
Distribution 25th Percentile
whether most (4 years)
values occur low in
the range, high in
the range, or
grouped in the
middle
Percentiles the 25th Percentile
percent of the
(6 years)
distribution that is
equal to or below a
certain value
Analysis of Categorical Data
Distribution of Number of people answering example questionnaire
who reside in 5 regions of the United States
categorical
variables should
be examined
before more in-
depth analyses
Example: variable
RESIDE
Analysis of Categorical Data
(cont.)
Table: Number of people answering sample
Another way to questionnaire who reside in 5 regions of
the United States
Frequency Percent
look at the data is Midwest
Northeast
16
13
20%
16%
to list the data Northwest
South
19
24
24%
30%
categories in Southwest 8 10%
tables Total 80 100%
Table shown gives
same information
as in previous
figure but in a
different format
Observed vs. Expected
Distribution
Observed data on level of education from a
Education variable hypothetical questionnaire
Observed distribution of
education levels (top)
Expected distribution of
education (bottom) (1)
Comparing graphs shows
a more educated study Data on the education level of the US
population aged 20 years or older, from the US
population than expected Census Bureau
Are the observed data
really that different from
the expected data?
Answer would require
further exploration with
statistical tests
Conclusion
Defining variables and basic coding
are basic steps in data analysis
Simple univariate analysis may be
used with continuous and categorical
variables
Further analysis may require
statistical tests such as chi-squares
and other more extensive data
analysis
References
1. US Census Bureau. Educational Attainment in
the United States: 2003---Detailed Tables for
Current Population Report, P20-550 (All Races).
Available at:
http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdem
o/education/cps2003.html
. Accessed December 11, 2006.
