Statistics in Health Care

by | Feb 2, 2025 | Health

 

Statistical application and the interpretation of data is important in health care. Review the statistical concepts covered in this topic. Discuss the significance of statistical application in health care, including the following:

Describe the application of statistics in health care. Specifically discuss its significance to safety, health promotion, and leadership.

Provide an example of the application of statistics in health care by finding a journal article that illustrates its application to safety, health promotion, or leadership. Identify at least two statistical terms used within this article and provide definitions. Include the article on your reference page.

Describe the importance of standardized health care data as it pertains to ensuring integrity of research data.

In addition to your article, use two peer-reviewed, scholarly references other than those listed in the Topic 1 Resources. References should be published within the last 5-7 years.

Sample solution

Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell. 

In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.


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God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.

Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.

To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.

 

References

Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.

Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(8), 487.

Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.

Statistical application is fundamental to modern healthcare, permeating every aspect from patient care to public health policy. It provides the tools to transform raw data into meaningful insights, driving evidence-based decisions that improve outcomes and shape the future of healthcare.

Application of Statistics in Healthcare:

  • Safety: Statistics plays a crucial role in identifying and mitigating safety risks. Tracking adverse events, analyzing patient outcomes, and monitoring infection rates all rely on statistical methods. For example, statistical process control charts can be used to monitor surgical site infections, allowing for early detection of increases and prompt intervention. Epidemiological studies, utilizing statistical techniques, investigate outbreaks and identify risk factors for hospital-acquired infections. This data-driven approach to safety minimizes harm and improves patient well-being.

Statistical application is fundamental to modern healthcare, permeating every aspect from patient care to public health policy. It provides the tools to transform raw data into meaningful insights, driving evidence-based decisions that improve outcomes and shape the future of healthcare.

Application of Statistics in Healthcare:

  • Safety: Statistics plays a crucial role in identifying and mitigating safety risks. Tracking adverse events, analyzing patient outcomes, and monitoring infection rates all rely on statistical methods. For example, statistical process control charts can be used to monitor surgical site infections, allowing for early detection of increases and prompt intervention. Epidemiological studies, utilizing statistical techniques, investigate outbreaks and identify risk factors for hospital-acquired infections. This data-driven approach to safety minimizes harm and improves patient well-being.
  • Health Promotion: Effective health promotion programs depend on understanding population health trends and evaluating intervention effectiveness. Statistics helps identify at-risk groups, assess the impact of health campaigns (e.g., vaccination rates, smoking cessation), and tailor interventions to specific communities. For example, randomized controlled trials, using statistical analysis, can determine the effectiveness of a new health education program on diabetes management. Data on health behaviors, collected through surveys and analyzed statistically, informs the development of targeted health promotion strategies.
  • Leadership: Healthcare leaders rely on data to make strategic decisions about resource allocation, program development, and organizational performance. Statistics helps analyze patient satisfaction data, assess financial performance, and evaluate the effectiveness of different healthcare delivery models. For example, regression analysis can be used to identify factors that influence patient satisfaction, allowing leaders to focus on areas for improvement. Benchmarking against other institutions, using statistical comparisons, helps identify best practices and drive organizational change.

Example of Statistical Application in Healthcare:

Here’s an example from a journal article:

Article: Daskalakis, C., Joffe, M., & Becher, D. (2017). Implementing a multifaceted intervention to improve hand hygiene compliance in a surgical setting. American Journal of Infection Control, 45(12), 1284–1289.

This article describes a study aimed at improving hand hygiene compliance among surgical staff. The authors implemented a multifaceted intervention and used statistical analysis to evaluate its effectiveness.

Statistical Terms:

  • Compliance Rate: The percentage of times hand hygiene was performed appropriately out of the total number of opportunities. This is a descriptive statistic.
  • Odds Ratio: A measure of association between an exposure (e.g., the intervention) and an outcome (e.g., hand hygiene compliance). An odds ratio greater than 1 suggests an increased likelihood of the outcome in the exposed group. This is an inferential statistic.

Importance of Standardized Healthcare Data:

Standardized healthcare data is essential for ensuring the integrity of research data. Standardization involves using consistent definitions, coding systems (e.g., ICD-10), and data collection methods. This ensures that data can be reliably aggregated and compared across different settings and populations. Without standardization, it would be impossible to conduct meaningful research on large datasets, hindering our ability to understand disease patterns, evaluate treatments, and improve healthcare delivery. Standardized data also facilitates data sharing and collaboration among researchers, accelerating the pace of discovery. It minimizes bias and improves the generalizability of research findings.

Additional References:

  1. Groenwold, R. H. H., Moons, K. G. M., & Altman, D. G. (2016). The perils of using and reporting high condition numbers in multivariable models. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 74, 128–134.
  2. Higgins, J. P. T., Thomas, J., Chandler, J., Clee, M. P., Clarke, D. A., Cochrane Collaboration., … & Welch, V. A. (2022). Cochrane handbook for sys

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