Classifying variables in a nutrition survey
A survey of elderly people records, among other columns: gender (male or female), family situation (single, living with a spouse, living with family, or living with someone else), cups of tea per day, cups of coffee per day, height in centimetres, weight in kilograms, age in years, and how often meat is eaten (never, less than once a week, once a week, two or three times a week, four to six times a week, or every day).
Classify each variable as nominal, ordinal, or quantitative.
Worked answer (click to show)
- Gender: nominal.
- Family situation: nominal; the four categories have no natural order.
- Cups of tea per day and cups of coffee per day: quantitative and discrete, since they are counts.
- Height, weight and age: quantitative and continuous, though recorded to whole units.
- How often meat is eaten: ordinal; the six categories run from never to every day but are not equally spaced in frequency.