Exercise 8 Responses

1. Calculating mean, mode, and median for 563, 593, 606, 520, 563, 610, 577

Mean = (563 + 593 + 606 + 520 + 563 + 610 + 577) /7

            = 576

Mode = the most appearing number = 563

Median

Arranging in order 520, 563, 563, 593, 577, 606, 610

Middle number is 593

• Based on the Winkler et al. (2014) the mode for inpatient complications in Table 2 is AMI post admission for patients admitted with UA which has a frequency of 21 and this represented 8% of the patients with this complication.
• The distribution for inpatient complications has a single mode which is the AMI post admission for patients admitted with UA. Ideally, this is the most reported symptom with 8% reporting it.
•  Based on Table 1, the three most cardiovascular medical history events include personal history of CAD with a mode of 176, history of unstable angina with a mode of 124, and previous acute myocardial infarction which had a mode of 114. In terms of the percentage of the population, personal history of CAD had represented a 76% of the total population, while patients with history of unstable angina were 63% and then the previous acute myocardial infarction which represented 53% of the patient population (Winkler et al, 2013).
• The mean and median lengths of stay (LOS) for the study participants are 5.37 and 4 days, respectively (Winkler et al, 2014).
• According to the report given by Winkler et al. (2013) the range for the length of stay is 1 – 93 indicating that the minimum number was 1 and the maximum score was 93. Taking the difference between the mean and median, which is 1.37 it indicates that the 93 is an outlier in this distribution and the data is skewed. Clearly it tells that most data scores for the length of stay (LOS) were concentrated around the mean and median which are measures of central tendency and this qualifies 93 as an outlier in this distribution.
• Winkler et al. (2013) reported that the most common (frequent) arrhythmias which was experienced by the patients was the PVC greater than 50/hour representing 22% of the total population making it the modal arrhythmias. The second common arrhythmia was sustained ventricular tachycardia which represented 15% of the total population.
• Ideally, the PVCs greater than 50/hour was the modal arrhythmia which predicted an increased Length of Stay (LOS), independently (p < 0.0001). Since the p-value is less than alpha 0.05, then the result was statistically significant.
• Age greater than 65 years and the final diagnosis Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) predicted more than 50 premature ventricular contractions per hour with a P value of 0.0004. In this case, the P-value is less than 0.05 indicating that the relationship was statistically significant. Actually, this tells that if a patient older than 65 years received an AMI diagnosis, they have had a chance of being presented to hospital with more than 50 PVCs/hour.
• Considering the Race variable included in Table 1 of the study findings the Whites had the highest frequency (141) representing a 51% of the total population with ACS and this makes it the modal race for this study. The study findings should not be generalized to American Indians because the frequency is not equal for the two races. Only 23 patients were from the American Indian race as compared to the 143 Whites – this tells that there may be overrepresentation of ACS symptoms in terms of frequency for the Whites than the American Indians – and generalizing the study findings would be biased.

References

Winkler, C., Funk, M., Schindler, D. M., Hemsey, J. Z., Lampert, R., & Drew, B. J. (2013).          Arrhythmias in patients with acute coronary syndrome in the first 24 hours of     hospitalization. Heart & Lung, 42(6), p. 424.