Overview
This hands-on activity will solidify the concepts you learned in Modules One and Two and encourage you to think like a biostatistician. Review this module’s resources for support on descriptive statistics, variables, sampling, and using StatCrunch.
The Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) regularly collects nationally representative data about the American public’s knowledge of, attitudes toward, and use of cancer- and health-related information. HINTS data are used to monitor changes in the rapidly evolving fields of health communication and health information technology and to create more effective health communication strategies across different populations.
A modified data set from HINTS with 1,091 observations is provided in the Supporting Materials section.
This activity focuses on the age group variable, as shown in the following frequency table:
| AgeGrpB | Frequency | Relative Frequency | Percent of Total |
| 1 (18-34) | 192 | 0.17598533 | 17.598533 |
| 2 (35-49) | 231 | 0.21173236 | 21.173236 |
| 3 (50-64) | 359 | 0.32905591 | 32.905591 |
| 4 (65-74) | 229 | 0.20989918 | 20.989918 |
| 5 (75+) | 80 | 0.073327223 | 7.3327223 |
| Count = 1,091 |
Prompt
Upload the Data Analysis Data Set from the Supporting Materials section to StatCrunch and address the following critical elements:
- Describe the type of study design that was used to collect the data. For example, is it observational or experimental? Review the HINTS webpage in the Supporting Materials section for help.
- Refer to the frequency table above, where the variable AgeGrpB is a categorical variable.
- Identify the category with the highest frequency, or the modal category, in the frequency distribution.
- Describe the insights you can draw from the percentage distribution.
- For the continuous variable of age, calculate and interpret:
- The measures of central tendency (mean, median)
- The measures of variability (range, interquartile range, standard deviation)
- Create a histogram or box plot to visualize the distribution of the age data (variable: Age).
- Construct a frequency table and a bar chart to visualize the distribution of electronic record use (variable: AccessOnlineRecord2).
- Briefly describe the use of electronic records in the sample of 1,091 observations.
What to Submit
Submit your work in a Microsoft Word document with double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, and one-inch margins. Use the rubric criteria to label your responses. No AI please.
Supporting Materials
The following resources may support your work on the project:
Webpage: About HINTS Learn more about the National Cancer Institute’s Health Information National Trends Survey.
Resource: Data Analysis Data Description This resource describes the data you will analyze for this assignment.
Resource: Data Analysis Data Set Upload this data set to StatCrunch to analyze it for this assignment.
Resource: Loading Data in StatCrunch Instructions This resource includes screenshots of the steps for loading your data file to StatCrunch.