Summary and descriptive statistics | Nursing homework help
The National Cancer Institute collects and publishes data on patient demographics to understand the differences between groups based on the collected data. Descriptive statistics provide a summary of the data that helps in analyzing and understanding these differences. The following descriptive statistics have been calculated for the provided data:
Measures of Central Tendency:
- Mean age: 56.78 years
- Median age: 57 years
- Mode age: 60 years
Measures of Variation:
- Variance: 105.98
- Standard deviation: 10.30
- Range: 37 years (from 30 to 67 years)
The mean age of the patients is 56.78 years, with a standard deviation of 10.30. This indicates that the age of patients is normally distributed around the mean, with most of the patients falling between 46.48 years and 67.08 years (mean ± standard deviation). The median age of the patients is 57 years, which is very close to the mean age. The mode age is 60 years, which indicates that more patients are aged 60 years than any other age group.
The variance of 105.98 and the standard deviation of 10.30 suggest that there is a significant amount of variation in the ages of the patients. The range of 37 years indicates that the age of patients varies widely, from 30 years to 67 years. This suggests that there may be different health outcomes based on the age of the patient.
Analyzing the data, we can observe that the age range with the highest number of patients is between 50 and 60 years old. As age increases or decreases from this range, there is a decrease in the number of patients. This information could help health care professionals to tailor treatments, prevention programs, and patient education to the age group with the highest incidence of cancer, thereby potentially improving health outcomes. It is also worth noting that additional information such as cancer type, ethnicity, and gender would provide further insight into the health outcomes of specific groups.