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 in Melbourne. He is also a Clinical Adjunct Associate Professor at Monash University. He is a co-founder of the Australia and New Zealand Clinician Educator Network (ANZCEN) and is the Lead for the ANZCEN Clinician Educator Incubator programme. He is on the Board of Directors for the Intensive Care Foundation and is a First Part Examiner for the College of Intensive Care Medicine. He is an internationally recognised Clinician Educator with a passion for helping clinicians learn and for improving the clinical performance of individuals and collectives.
After finishing his medical degree at the University of Auckland, he continued post-graduate training in New Zealand as well as Australia’s Northern Territory, Perth and Melbourne. He has completed fellowship training in both intensive care medicine and emergency medicine, as well as post-graduate training in biochemistry, clinical toxicology, clinical epidemiology, and health professional education.
He is actively involved in in using translational simulation to improve patient care and the design of processes and systems at Alfred Health. He coordinates the Alfred ICU’s education and simulation programmes and runs the unit’s education website, INTENSIVE. He created the ‘Critically Ill Airway’ course and teaches on numerous courses around the world. He is one of the founders of the FOAM movement (Free Open-Access Medical education) and is co-creator of litfl.com, the RAGE podcast, the Resuscitology course, and the SMACC conference.
His one great achievement is being the father of three amazing children.
On Twitter, he is @precordialthump.
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