12.6.1  Frequencies

Frequency means the number of times an event occurs or the number of responses in a particular category. In other words, a frequency is a count of events in a given time frame. For example, if you report ‘Our Health Post sees 130 patients each month’, the frequency of patients seen is 130 per month.

Frequency data is often presented in tables, graphs or pie charts.

  • Suppose you find that in a particular area, 14 out of 25 adults aged under 30 years have had malaria, whereas 19 out of 25 adults between the ages of 30 and 50 years, and 20 out of 25 adults over 50 years, have had malaria. Present these data in the form of a table.

  • Your table should look something like Table 12.5.

    Table 12.5  Age distribution of malaria cases from the imaginary example given above.
    Age categoryNumber of people sampledNumber who have had malaria
    over 50 years2520
    30 to 50 years2519
    under 30 years2514

12.6  Summarising quantitative data

12.6.2  Mean, median and mode