Levels of measurement

Question 1

What is categorical nominal data?

Answer 1

• categories described by names or words
• e.g marital status, blood group, type of rash
• descriptive
• you can assign numbers to a word

Question 2

What is categorical ordinal data?

Answer 2

• observations that can be ranked
• e.g. disease staging, classifcation of malignant tumours
• (stage1-4 cancer) - can be ranked on severity. priority etc

Question 3

What is scale interval data?

Answer 3

• Data which are recorded on a true numerical scale
• scale starts at an arbitrary point
• e.g celsius temperature scale
• 0 degrees = arbitrary point at the freezing point of water
• you can add and subtract but not multiply or divide interval data

Question 4

What is cale ratio data?

Answer 4

• can be recorded on a tur numerical scale, with a true zero point
• equal distance between intervals of measurement
• e.g. lenght, height, weighing scales, number of things (number of asthma attacks, number of eggs in a box)

Question 5

What is continuous data?

Answer 5

• may take any value

Question 6

What is discontious/discrete data ?

Answer 6

• discontinuous /discrete data - counts e.g. number of asthma attacks