2.4.3

Sampling

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Sampling

Governments and health organisations track cases of diseases to inform their policy decisions. These can be global cases, or cases in a target group (called the target population). For example, the number of incidences of a particular disease in Scotland, or in 60-79 year olds in Manchester.

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Big populations and sampling

  • As a country's population is so large, not everybody can be tested.
  • Instead, we take a sample and assume that the pattern is true for the whole population.
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Sampling example

  • If 10 people in a sample of 100 people have a particular disease, 10% of the sample has the disease.
    • We assume that 10% of the population will also have the disease.
  • If the population has 2000 people, then we predict 200 people in the population have the disease.

Jump to other topics

1Cell Biology

2Organisation

2.1Principles of Organisation

2.2Enzymes

2.3Circulatory System

2.4Non-Communicable Diseases

2.5Plant Tissues, Organs & Systems

3Infection & Response

4Bioenergetics

5Homeostasis & Response

6Inheritance, Variation & Evolution

7Ecology

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