HMG7210 Biostatistics Assessment 2

HMG7210 Biostatistics Assessment 2 Questions 2018.docx Page 1 of 6
HMG7210 Biostatistics, Semester 2, 2018
Assessment 2 – Written Assignment
Due Saturday, September 22, 2018 by 17:00 (5:00pm)
Dyslipidaemia Study in Diabetes: Study description
A cross-sectional study was conducted on 366 diabetic patients to assess their blood lipid profile and to
investigate possible factors contributing to the development of dyslipidaemia among diabetic patients.
The patients were recruited from a specialized hospital outpatient department. All study participants
provided a blood sample and completed a lifestyle and demographic questionnaire.
The objective of the study was to find factor(s) that may relate to the risk of developing dyslipidaemia in
diabetic patients. Along with the demographic information and physical measurements, haematological
measurements were reported in continuous scale. For analysis purposes most of the continuous variables
were transformed into grouped data. However, original continuous variables were also kept in the data
set. The short and long names of the variables and corresponding statistical codes are presented in the
following table, Table 1.
Table 1: Variable description of the Dyslipidaemia study

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Questions 1-3 are related to the “Dyslipidaemia Data”.
Question 1 [10 marks]: Identify each of the variables in the above table either as nominal, ordinal,
discrete or continuous.
Hint: Present your answer in a table by listing the variables in the first column, classification of the
variables in the second and value label in the third column.
Question 2 [20 marks]: Fill up the following table using appropriate summary statistics for each of the
listed variables. Discuss whether dyslipidaemia is related to HbA1c, diastolic BP, insulin status and
patients’ age.
Hint: outcome variable is dyslipidaemia.
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Hints:
(a) Justify the choice of the graphs that have been used.
(b) Discuss the results and make a brief summary conclusion in the context of the study.
(c) Present the graphs in the text along with the graph number and appropriate title for the graph (copy
and paste all graphs in a picture format, see the instructions provided in Question 2 above)

Question 3 [15 marks]: Graphically determine the relationship between dyslipidaemia and each of the
following variables: duration of diabetes group, BMI group and occupation type. Present each of the
above variables on an appropriate graph and discuss.
Hints:
• Evaluate the conditions (if any) that you should check before reporting summary statistics for each of
the numerical variables in this question.
• Discuss the results and make a brief summary conclusion in the context of the study. Please present the
discussion and conclusion separately.
• Present the relevant analysis output in an appendix along with the table/graph number and appropriate
title for the table/graph (copy and paste all analysis output in a picture format by using “Copy
Special” – please see next bullet point).
• How to copy and paste? Here is the solution: In the SPSS output, if you right click on the graph or
table, as if you were going to copy it, there is an option for “Copy Special”. Click this and then uncheck
all options and check the Image (JPG, PNG) option. This will save the graph or table as an image.
When you paste it into a word document you can drag the corners to resize the image to your liking.
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Cardiovascular Disease Study (CVD-Data)
Consider a study where twelve baseline variables (e.g., age, gender, weight, BMI, etc.) among others
were collected from each of the 1429 participants. Out of the 1429 participants, 952 had a history of
being treated with Drug-X on a regular basis. The objective of the study was to investigate whether DrugX was protective for various risk factors of cerebrovascular vascular disease (CVD). The participants were
then followed for 5 years and their mortality status was recorded. The short and long names of the
variables are given in Table 2.
Note: Baseline Variables are collected at the beginning of a study.
Table 2: Variable description for the study

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Hints for Questions 4 & 5:
(d) Justify the choice of the graphs that have been used,
(e) Present the graphs in the text along with the graph number and appropriate title for the graph (please
use the special copy and paste option when copying and pasting from SPSS),
(f) Discuss the results and make a brief conclusion in the context of the study.
Questions 4-7 are related to the CVD-Data.sav
Question 4 [5 marks]: Consider that an investigator aims to assess whether followed-up mortality
(DEATH) was related to body mass index (BMI, a categorical variable) in the study sample. Evaluate the
investigator’s aim by presenting the related data on an appropriate graph.
Hint: no additional summary statistics or significance test required.
Question 5 [8 marks]: Using an appropriate graphical presentation discuss whether diastolic blood
pressure (DBP) is related to body mass index (BMI, a categorical variable) in the study sample
Hint: no additional summary statistics or significance test is required.
Based on the findings can you make an inference on the study population? Justify your answer.
HMG7210 Biostatistics Assessment 2 Questions 2018.docx Page 6 of 6
Hints for Questions 6 & 7:
Justify the choice of the statistical methods that have been used,
Present the data analysis output graphs/tables in an appendix along with the graph/table number and
appropriate title for the graph/table (please use the special copy and paste option when copying and
pasting from SPSS),
For statistical significance tests, please follow the steps that have been outlined in the lecture and
tutorial slides. All steps should be in the context of the study.
Interpretation for some of the results are required.
Question 6 [30 marks]: Using appropriate statistical method(s) investigate whether patients who had a
history of being treated with Drug-X on a regular basis have significantly different systolic blood pressure
(SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and cholesterol level (CHL) compared to patients who were not
treated with Drug-X.
Please fill up the following table from the above analysis results
[Note: 3 marks will be allocated for filling up this table with relevant data].

Hint: Please do not discuss the steps of significance tests for each of the variables separately. Instead
combine SBP, DBP and CHL in each step.
Note: Five marks (5 marks) will be allocated for successful combination of the results.
Question 7 [12 marks]: Using an appropriate statistical method evaluate the significance of difference of
SBP across the following categories of BMI: BMI <25, BMI 25 to <30 and BMI ≥ 30kg/m2.
End of Assignment