Birth Weights of New Born Babies

Question: Describe about the Birth Weights of New Born Babies. Answer: I. Introduction The data to be analyzed was derived from a randomly selected sample of 116 observations of new born babies in the Local Health District in 2002. In this report, the birth weight of new born babies was recorded and analyzed where the weight was recorded in grams. These 116 observations represented a sample size derived from a population of births from the Local Health District. It was assumed that the sample size was adequate to represent an outcome that could reflect the situation in the population. According to preliminary results obtained (see table 1 below) indicate that the average birth weight new born babies was 3,393.66 grams that was associated with a standard deviation from the average weight of 537.89 grams. This indicated that the birth weights in the sample were scattered away from the average weight. The histogram below shows a wide distribution of the birth weights due to a large standard deviation. The standard error was small at 49.94 grams. The standard error indicates how reliable the average weight is in relation to the population. It represents the standard deviation of the population average. The sample size of 116 observations was adequate to estimate the average weight of new born babies in the population since it was far below the standard deviation of the sample. The minimum birth weight obtained from the sample was 1,644 grams while the maximum birth weight was 4,649 grams. The median, that is also referred to as the 50th percentile was 3,430 grams. The median represents the middle observation when the data is arranged in ascending order. From a statistical standpoint, we can be 95% confident that the average weight of new born babies in the Local Health District will fall 98.92 grams of the average recorded weight. That is, between 3,294.73 grams and 3,492 grams given a sample of 116 new born babies. Table 1: Summary Statistics of the Birth Weight of New Born Babies Figure 1: Histogram for New Born Babies' Birth Weight Figure 1 above shows a large deviation from the average birth weight. The average is between 3300 and 3600 and it can be seen from the graph that it is bell-shaped or almost symmetrically distributed on either side of the average recorded weight that is, it has one peak. The highest peak of the distribution represents the mode (3629). That is, weight value that occurs more often than any other in the sample data does.