Types of Variables

Authors
Affiliations

Nate Yomogida, PT, DPT

Doctor of Physical Therapy

B.S. in Kinesiology

Chloë Kerstein, PT, DPT

Doctor of Physical Therapy

B.A. in Neuroscience

Dichotomous

A dichotomous variable refers to a variable that is binary and mutually exclusive (e.g. gender, surgical status)1.

Examples

Examples
1 0
Male Female
Surgery No surgery
Died Did not die
Cured not cured
Disease occurred Disease did not occur
Smoker Nonsmoker

Characteristics of dichotomous variables:

  • A dichotomous variable could be coded “0 or 1”

When used as an outcome variable, regression is applied to dichotomous variables using logistic regression

References

1.
Daniel WW, Cross CL. Biostatistics: A Foundation for Analysis in the Health Sciences. 11th ed. Wiley; 2019.

Citation

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