Reply to Discussion- Biostatistics 250-275 words, APA After having the opportunity to read through some of background readings provided in the module, I was able to refresh my mind on some of the cent

Reply to Discussion- Biostatistics 250-275 words, APA

After having the opportunity to read through some of background readings provided in the module, I was able to refresh my mind on some of the central tendency concepts that were learned many moons ago. Based on what is already known, these concepts compliment any given set of data. From what I have regathered from the reading is that the mean is the average of components, meaning when all elements are added and divided by the number of given elements, one can conclude that the number given will result in the mean (Joseph, 2014). The median is simply the middle number of a set of data (Joseph, 2014). For example, if there are three numbers in a set of data, the median will be the number that falls between the first and last number. However, if there are four numbers in a set of data, the average of the two middle numbers will be the median. The mode of a data set will be the number that occurs the most frequently (Joseph, 2014). According to Lake Tahoe Community College (n.d.), "if there is one outcome that is very far from the rest of the data, then the mean will be strongly affected by this outcome." Meaning that the mean will be more sensitive to outliers. Examples of occasions that would be more appropriate to use the median as opposed the mean when reporting on disease prevalence would be for periods of incubation, duration of illness, and age (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012).

The simultaneous use of each concept is required in order to most accurately depict a set of data (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012). An example where one may prefer to use the mode over the median is maybe when calibrating an instrument to a specific temperature. When considering a group of people and their body temperatures, the normal range for a specific test could be calibrated to a body temperature that occurred the most among the people.

References:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2012). Principles of Epidemiology in Public Health Practice, Third Edition: An Introduction to Applied Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/csels/dsepd/ss1978/lesson2/section8.html

Joseph, L. (2014). Statistics formula: Mean, median, mode, and standard deviation. Retrieved from https://blog.udemy.com/statistics-formula/

Lake Tahoe Community College (n.d.). Mean, mode, median, and standard deviation. Retrieved from http://www.ltcconline.net/greenl/courses/201/descstat/mean.htm