Question

Describe the different types of data. Explain what they are, what they are used for, and how are they used in the Health Information Management department, as well as the healthcare industry.

Answer 1

(a) Types of data:

    (i) Qualitativa data (also called categorical data): the observations fall into seperate distinct categories, like gender (Male/ Female), Mother tongue etc.

       Examples in Healthcare Industry: Color of eyes: Blue, Green, Brown etc.

         Qualitative data is of 2 types:

         Ordinal and Nominal

         Ordinal data represent discrete and ordered units.

        Example in healthcare industry: Educational Qualifications and Experience (in years) of the doctors in a hospital.

         Nominal data represent the discrete units and are used to label variables, that have no quantitative value.

        Example in healthcare industry: Ward Number in In-patient Wards

      (ii) Quantitative (Also called Numeric) data: counts or measurements.

         This can be of 2 types:

         -    discrete if the measurements are integers

            Example in healthcare industry: Number of patients in a Ward in a hospital.

        -    Continuous if the measurements can take on any value within some range

                  Example in healthcare industry: Height and weight measurements of patients.

              Quantitate data re of 2 types:

              Interval data and Ratio data

Interval data represent the ordered units that have the same difference.

Example from healthcare industry: Temperature of a patient who is having fever.

Ratio data is same as interval data, with the difference that they have an absolute zero.

Example in healthcare industry: Patient Fall Rate in a hospital: The rate at which patients fall during the course of their hospital per 1000 patient days.