You have been assigned a topic according to the first letter of your last name. Please identify the topic assigned to you below. For each topic, find a health science example of it in a published research study or news article. Summarize how your topic is used in the example. Do you think a different data type would be better? (Please note: You may wish to use the Library to find your example for this Discussion Board. A librarian is available should you need assistance.)
Although not required, it is recommended that you plan your reply posts so that you reply to topics that you did not cover within your main post.
(for last names beginning with A–H): Identify a phenomenon with a lot of variation. Is variation related to variance—if so, how? How is variance related to the standard deviation?
(for last names beginning with I–P): How can standard deviation be used in decision making? Think of an example where knowing the spread in a dataset would be helpful. (PLEASE DO THIS ONE> MY LAST NAME STARTS WITH M)***
(for last names beginning with Q–Z): Using the Library, find an example of measures of spread in a peer-reviewed journal. Identify the measures and describe how it is used. Why do you think the author(s) used that particular measure?
REPLY TO : Olivia Marsh posted Aug 26, 2020 12:33 PM
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Standard deviation is a number that is used to show how numbers in a group are spread out compared to the average. So, if most of the numbers are close the the average the STD is low but if the numbers are farther away from the data it means that the STD is high. Standard deviation can be used in decision making when trying to see how far the data set steers from the average. It can help make more informed decisions also. One example of why knowing the spread in a data set would be important could be when buying a house. If you are looking for a 3 bed 2 bath house in a particular area it is important to know the average that houses sell for there. Then, knowing the spread of the data for houses you are looking at can help you decide if the house you are looking at is above or below the average price. This can be important to be sure you are getting a good value thus helping you make a more informed decision on the house you are going to buy.
REPLY TO: Gerlinda Antoine posted Aug 27, 2020 11:46 AM
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“Variance (σ2) in statistics is a measurement of the spread between numbers in a data set. That is, it measures how far each number in the set is from the mean and therefore from every other number in the set” (Hayes 2019). Variation on the other hand is how spread out a set of data is. They are related because one is seeing how the data is spread out and the other is the actual measurement between the numbers. This year in the Frontiers in Neurology, Vol 11, a study was done to find if there was an association between variation in heart rate of critically ill patients and death. “The objective of this study is to examine the feasibility of using continuous telemetry to assess diurnal variation in heart rate (HR) among medical ICU patients as a proxy for circadian alignment” (Knauert 2020).
56 patients had their complete heart data analyzed. 46 of them which is 86% of the study had detectable diurnal variation. “Of these patients with diurnal variation, 39 (81%) were characterized as having the nadir of their HR outside of the normal range of 02:00–06:00 (“misalignment”)” (Knauert 2020). The study found that 7 of these 39 patients who had a misaligned diurnal variation in their heart rate died. On the other hand, no deaths occurred with those who had an aligned diurnal variation.
References:
Hayes. (2019, September 2). Variance. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/v/variance.asp
Melissa P. Knauert, Terrence E. Murphy, Margaret M. Doyle, Margaret A. Pisani, Nancy S. Redeker, & Henry K. Yaggi. (2020). Pilot Observational Study to Detect Diurnal Variation and Misalignment in Heart Rate Among Critically Ill Patients. Frontiers in Neurology, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2020.00637