Qualitative Data Types and Tests
OVERVIEW
Qualitative data consists of categorical variables determined by description (which may be numerical!) rather than a numerical measurement, amount, or quantity
DATA TYPES
Categorical variables are made up of categories that identify seperate entities (e.g. gender, colours, etc) and have different levels of measurement (lowest to highest):
- Dichotomous or binary data – the value of variable has only two alternatives (ie. yes or no; e.g. alive or dead, pregnancy status)
- Nominal data – variable is described in terms of quality and do not have a natural order (e.g. frequency of EEG waveforms, colour of hair)
- Ordinal data – numerical values are assigned to subjective observations and have a natural order (e.g. ASA scores for anaesthetic risk, Likert scores for agreement on a survey question)
Continuous variables are quantitative data, not qualitative data, as they are expressed numerically to indicate a quantity, amount, or measurement
TESTS
- small number: Fisher’s Exact Test
- large number: Chi-squared Test
REFERENCES AND LINKS
LITFL
Critical Care
Compendium
Chris is an Intensivist and ECMO specialist at The Alfred ICU, where he is Deputy Director (Education). He is a Clinical Adjunct Associate Professor at Monash University, the Lead for the Clinician Educator Incubator programme, and a CICM First Part Examiner.
He is an internationally recognised Clinician Educator with a passion for helping clinicians learn and for improving the clinical performance of individuals and collectives. He was one of the founders of the FOAM movement (Free Open-Access Medical education) has been recognised for his contributions to education with awards from ANZICS, ANZAHPE, and ACEM.
His one great achievement is being the father of three amazing children.
On Bluesky, he is @precordialthump.bsky.social and on the site that Elon has screwed up, he is @precordialthump.
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