Proportional Data Analysis: Part 2

Abstract

Discrete data are encountered all over biomedical research. Basically a discrete variable is a characteristic that varies over patients but can occur in only a few different values. Gender is a typical example of a variable that can have two values “male” or “female”, and “death” or “alive” is another example of a discrete variable. Variables that can attain only two values are called dichotomous or binary. Typical examples of discrete variables with more than two values are, e.g., blood type (A, B, AB, O), genotype in general, race.