BMS1042 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Categorical Variable, Pain Scale, Blood Pressure
21 Jan 2020
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Categorical variables are qualitative, and numerical variables are quantitative. Examples of some variables, their units, and the type of variable that they are. Numerical: continuous (fractions allowed) - there is an infinite amount of values that an observation can have when it is continuous, discrete (no fractions) - measurements are clearly separated from each other, and there are no in-between options. An example is the number of people involved in a car crash. Categorical: nominal (more than one group) - this is when observations are classified into separate categories that are not numerical. An example is race: binary - a type of nominal observation, that has a yes or no answer. An example is the question, are you of aboriginal or torres strait islander descent: ordinal (hierarchies) - here, ordinal describes observations that can be ranked or ordered in a specific order. For example, ranking pain as mild, moderate, or severe.
