The items below appear on a physician’s intake form. Determine...

Question

The items below appear on a physician’s intake form. Determine the level of measurement of the data for each category.

a. Temperature

b. Allergies

c. Weight

d. Pain level (scale of 0 to 10)

Accepted Answer

Hello everyone. Let's take a look at this question together. A hospital administrator is analyzing patient records. For each data type below, identify the level of measurement. And we have a room number, asystolic blood pressure in millimeters of mercury, a number of previous hospital visits, and the severity of symptoms categorized as mild, moderate, or severe. And we need to determine for each of the following data types below what type of level of measurement best categorizes them. And so to solve this question, we have to recall what we know about the four levels of measurement in statistics, starting with the nominal level of measurement, which involves data with categories that have no inherent order, such as hair color or gender. Then we have the ordinal level of measurement, which represents data. That has categories with a meaningful order, but unequal or unmeasurable intervals between them, such as letter grades or satisfaction ratings. Then we have the interval level of measurement, which involves numerical values with equal spacing, but no true zero, such as temperature in Celsius. And lastly, the ratio level of measurement, which involves numerical values with equal spacing and a true zero, allowing for meaningful ratios such as height, weight, or age, and using what we know about the different levels of measurement and looking at the different types of data, starting with our first data type, which is a room number, which we know that a room number best represents the nominal level of measurement as room numbers are. Used as labels and do not have a meaningful order or a true numerical value. Then we have systolic blood pressure in millimeters of mercury, which systolic blood pressure in millimeters of mercury best represents the ratio level of measurement, as blood pressure is measured on a scale with a true zero and the differences and ratios are meaningful. Then we have the number of previous hospital visits, which the Data for the number of previous hospital visits best represents the ratio level of measurement, as the number of visits is a count with a true zero, and both differences and ratios are meaningful. And lastly, we have the severity of symptoms categorized as mild, moderate, or severe, which the severity of symptoms in categories best represents the ordinal level of measurement, as these categories have a Meaning order, such as mild being less than moderate, which is less than severe, but the differences between them are not precisely measurable. So the level of measurement for a room number is nominal for systolic blood pressure in millimeters of mercury is ratio, for the number of previous hospital visits is also ratio, and the severity of symptoms categorized as mild, moderate, or severe is ordinal. I hope you found this video to be helpful. Thank you and goodbye.

The items below appear on a physician’s intake form. Determine the level of measurement of the data for each category.

a. Temperature

b. Allergies

c. Weight

d. Pain level (scale of 0 to 10)

Key Concepts

Levels of Measurement

Nominal and Ordinal Data

Interval and Ratio Data

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