ESSENTIALS OF BIOSTATISTICS IN PUBLIC
HEALTH EXAM SCRIPT COMPREHENSIVE
STUDY GUIDE
●● What are the two types of biostatistics?
Answer: Descriptive statistics and Inferential (Analytical) statistics.
●● What do descriptive statistics focus on?
Answer: Describing a subset of the population, including characteristics
like sex, age, zip code, and race/ethnicity.
●● What is the purpose of inferential statistics?
Answer: To perform studies on the population to assess associations
between an exposure and an outcome.
●● What are nominal variables?
Answer: Categorical variables that fall into categories with no inherent
value or order (e.g., race).
●● What are dichotomous variables?
Answer: Variables that have only two options (e.g., exposed/unexposed).
, ●● What are ordinal variables?
Answer: Variables similar to nominal variables but with an inherent
order (e.g., educational attainment).
●● What are continuous variables?
Answer: Variables that can take any value (e.g., age).
●● What distinguishes interval variables from ratio variables?
Answer: Interval variables lack a true zero, while ratio variables have a
true zero and values act as true ratios (e.g., temperature in kelvins).
●● What is an independent variable?
Answer: The variable that is changed or controlled in an experiment to
test its effects on the dependent variable.
●● What is a dependent variable?
Answer: The variable that is measured and affected in an experiment.
●● What is a frequency table?
Answer: A table used for nominal and ordinal variables that provides
information on frequency, relative frequency, cumulative frequency, and
cumulative relative frequency.
HEALTH EXAM SCRIPT COMPREHENSIVE
STUDY GUIDE
●● What are the two types of biostatistics?
Answer: Descriptive statistics and Inferential (Analytical) statistics.
●● What do descriptive statistics focus on?
Answer: Describing a subset of the population, including characteristics
like sex, age, zip code, and race/ethnicity.
●● What is the purpose of inferential statistics?
Answer: To perform studies on the population to assess associations
between an exposure and an outcome.
●● What are nominal variables?
Answer: Categorical variables that fall into categories with no inherent
value or order (e.g., race).
●● What are dichotomous variables?
Answer: Variables that have only two options (e.g., exposed/unexposed).
, ●● What are ordinal variables?
Answer: Variables similar to nominal variables but with an inherent
order (e.g., educational attainment).
●● What are continuous variables?
Answer: Variables that can take any value (e.g., age).
●● What distinguishes interval variables from ratio variables?
Answer: Interval variables lack a true zero, while ratio variables have a
true zero and values act as true ratios (e.g., temperature in kelvins).
●● What is an independent variable?
Answer: The variable that is changed or controlled in an experiment to
test its effects on the dependent variable.
●● What is a dependent variable?
Answer: The variable that is measured and affected in an experiment.
●● What is a frequency table?
Answer: A table used for nominal and ordinal variables that provides
information on frequency, relative frequency, cumulative frequency, and
cumulative relative frequency.
