PUB 550 Choose one variable from the “Health Behavior Data Set” and discuss which type of graph is appropriate and why

PUB 550 Choose one variable from the “Health Behavior Data Set” and discuss which type of graph is appropriate and why

PUB 550 Choose one variable from the “Health Behavior Data Set” and discuss which type of graph is appropriate and why

Frequency distribution is the organization of data that was collected into a meaningful form so that a trend if present it can be easily seen and described (Manikandan, 2011). Data collected can be organized into a tabular or graphical (charts, histograms, or polygons). form to represent the number of individuals in each variable category on a measurement scale. As identified by Mishra et al. (2019), the frequency distribution in statistics simple counts the number of times or occurrences each variable occurs in the sample or population so that the information can be expressed using frequency or percentage.

The educational level variable from the Health Behavior Data set can be graphed using a bar graph to show the frequency distribution uses bars heights that are not touching to indicate frequency of collected data (Corty, 2016). The three different categories of the education variable data (Less than a high school education, graduated high school and graduated college) are represented on the X-axis that is labeled “Levels of Education”. While the frequency goes on the Y-Axis, is labeled “frequency”, and is marked off with equal intervals of 2 that ranges from 0 to 20. The highest number of frequencies in the data is 10.

The bar graph is appropriate because each bar that represents a variable category is discrete (Corty, 2016): All three bars have the same width and are separate from each other. By using a bar graph, the number of occurrences (frequency) of each of the three categories in the level of education will be presented in a clear picture. The bar graph will show that there are equal number (10 in each category) of participants representing each category in the education variable of the study.

References

Corty, E. W. (2016). Using and Interpreting Statistics: A Practical Text for the Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences. (3rd ed.).

Click here to ORDER an A++ paper from our Verified MASTERS and DOCTORATE WRITERS PUB 550 Choose one variable from the “Health Behavior Data Set” and discuss which type of graph is appropriate and why:

Manikandan S. (2011). Frequency distribution. Journal of pharmacology & pharmacotherapeutics, 2(1), 54-56.

Mishra, P., Pandey, C. M., Singh, U., Gupta, A., Sahu, C., & Keshri, A. (2019). Descriptive statistics and normality tests for statistical data. Annals of cardiac anesthesia, 22(1), 67-72.

Histograms are an extension of the bar graph. It is a type of vertical bar graph in which the bars represent groped continuous data. While there can be similarities between a bar graph and a histogram, such as the bar being the same width, a histogram does not have spaces between the bars. The quantitative data is grouped according to a determined bin size or interval. The bin refers to the width of each bar and the data is placed in the appropriate bin. The bins, or groups of data, are plotted on the x-axis while the frequencies are plotted on the y-axis. A grouped frequency distribution is constructed for the numerical data and this table is used to create the histogram. In most cases, the grouped frequency distribution is designed so there are no breaks in the intervals. The last value of one bin is actually the first value counted on the next bin.

For example, if you have a group of data with a bin size of 20, the bins would have a representation of 0-20, 20-40 and so forth. Bin sizes are written in a specific manner in order to simplify the process of grouping data.

The health behavior variable that I choose to describe the histogram is the average annual income rate in the US. This is especially important in middle to lower social classes and the disparities these classes face in the economy, how it affects their socioeconomic status, education and their health and well-being. Communities that are at higher risk of socio-economic disparities can be a result of education and income are correlated in many ways. Although the root cause of income inequality is still unknown, what is known is that income disparity falls more on people of color and communities that are at risk.

Reference

Corty, E. W. (2016). Using and interpreting statistics (3rd ed.). Worth Publishers.

Horowitz, J. M., Igielnik, R., & Kochhar, R. (2020, August 17). 1. trends in income and wealth inequality. Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends Project. Retrieved June 27, 2022, from https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/01/09/trends-in-income-and-wealth-inequality/ 

This is an add up to your points. A histogram would be an appropriate graph for the variable “Number of days in the past week that the respondent exercised for at least 30 minutes.” A histogram would allow us to see how many people exercised for each number of days in the past week. This would be helpful in understanding how often people exercise and how this affects their health. 

There are a few different types of graphs that could be used to display the data from the Health Behavior Data Set. A bar chart would be appropriate if there were a small number of data points, and if the data were categorical in nature. The type of graph that is appropriate for a given frequency distribution depends on the type of data that is being graphed. A bar chart, for example, might be useful if the data is categorized.

 A histogram or polygon might be more suited for quantitative data. “If there were a huge number of data points and the data was continuous”, histogram would be acceptable. If there were a minimal “number of data points and the data was continuous”, polygon would be acceptable. Bar chart or histogram might be adequate if the purpose is just to illustrate the data. A polygon might be more suited if the purpose is to compare two or more variables.

Frequency refers to the number of times a distinct value occurs within a specified period. Frequency distribution provides a visual display of how often a variable is observed. In essence, frequency distribution help in the sorting and grouping of data. Frequency distribution tables provide precise data on obvious trends within a data set (Kaliyadan et al., 2019). These trends are important in the comparison of data between various data sets. Frequency distribution tables also represent raw data in organized formats for easy interpretation (Kaliyadan et al., 2019). Individuals can interpret data from frequency tables at a glance. In essence, an individual can easily identify values that occur frequently, total observations, and the range of values.

           The most common tools for visual display of frequency distribution include bar charts, polygons, and histograms. Histograms are appropriate for graphing the frequency distribution of age. The rationale is that age is a continuous variable (Kaliyadan et al., 2019). Histograms represent continuous variables. Histograms include the number of ranges on the horizontal axis (x-axis) and frequency on the vertical axis (y-axis). Another reason is the ability to represent a large number of bars. Histograms can also represent large data in different class intervals (Hazra et al., 2016). The intervals represent the range (classes). An individual can easily identify upper and lower limits for classes. For instance, a histogram can represent data over a 10-year age interval. Therefore, a large data set is displayed in a fairly precise manner. Data sets are grouped in logic ranges. Histograms are also easy to interpret. Individuals can easily compare various data sets. Indeed, histograms are effective in the representation of the frequency distribution of age variables.

References

Hazra, A., & Gogtay, N. (2016). Biostatistics Series Module 3: Comparing Groups: Numerical            Variables. Indian journal of dermatology, 61(3), 251–260. https://doi.org/10.4103/0019-  5154.182416

Kaliyadan, F., & Kulkarni, V. (2019). Types of Variables, Descriptive Statistics, and Sample      Size. Indian dermatology online journal, 10(1), 82–86.   https://doi.org/10.4103/idoj.IDOJ_468_18

Frequency distribution is used to organize and reduce data. Frequency distribution is simply a count of how often the values of a variable occur in a set of data (Cory, 2016). A frequency distribution can be displayed in three different graphs: bar graphs, histograms, and frequency polygons. Choosing which graph to use depends on whether the numbers are discrete or continuous (Cory, 2016). A discrete number answers the question, “how many.” A continuous number answers the question of “how much?” (Cory, 2016).

Bar graphs demonstrate the frequency with which the different values of discrete variables occur (Cory, 2016). Bar Graphs are wider and tall, and the bar does not touch each other because the X-axis is discrete. 

One variable I choose from the “Health Behavior Data Set” is Sex because it shows the Sex of the individuals involved. The frequency distribution of the bar graph is used to organize females from males and provide information on how many females and male students are there. 

Reference

Corty, E. (2016). Using and interpreting statistics: A practical text for the behavioral, social, and health sciences (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Macmillan Learning.