Markdown Analysis

by Perla Bortel

Research Question

Among patients of different races, what is the average systolic blood pressure (SBP)?

Summary Statistics by Race

##              description.y systolic
## 1          AMERICAN INDIAN 124.4167
## 2                    ASIAN 121.3092
## 3                    BLACK 128.9286
## 4                 HISPANIC 130.0556
## 5              MULTIRACIAL 144.0000
## 6                    OTHER 129.0379
## 7 PREFERENCE NOT INDICATED 133.9159
## 8                   WHITE  126.1124
## $`AMERICAN INDIAN`
##    Min. 1st Qu.  Median    Mean 3rd Qu.    Max. 
##   107.0   110.8   120.0   124.4   130.5   160.0 
## 
## $ASIAN
##    Min. 1st Qu.  Median    Mean 3rd Qu.    Max. 
##    58.0   107.8   118.0   121.3   132.0   200.0 
## 
## $BLACK
##    Min. 1st Qu.  Median    Mean 3rd Qu.    Max. 
##    54.0   113.0   128.0   128.9   143.0   248.0 
## 
## $HISPANIC
##    Min. 1st Qu.  Median    Mean 3rd Qu.    Max. 
##   100.0   116.0   130.0   130.1   140.2   177.0 
## 
## $MULTIRACIAL
##    Min. 1st Qu.  Median    Mean 3rd Qu.    Max. 
##   127.0   138.0   149.0   144.0   152.5   156.0 
## 
## $OTHER
##    Min. 1st Qu.  Median    Mean 3rd Qu.    Max. 
##      62     112     128     129     144     237 
## 
## $`PREFERENCE NOT INDICATED`
##    Min. 1st Qu.  Median    Mean 3rd Qu.    Max. 
##    98.0   120.0   136.0   133.9   145.0   185.0 
## 
## $`WHITE `
##    Min. 1st Qu.  Median    Mean 3rd Qu.    Max. 
##     0.0   111.0   125.0   126.1   140.0   270.0

Boxplot of SBP by Race

Histogram of All Systolic BP Values

Conclusion

  • The highest average systolic BP was observed among Multiracial patients, though the sample size was very small.
  • Among well-represented groups:
    • Hispanic and Black patients had the highest average SBP
    • Asian patients had the lowest average SBP
  • These differences are visible in the boxplot, and group means are summarized using aggregate() and tapply().

Notes

  • All processing used the following R functions:
    • summary(), aggregate(), tapply(), hist(), boxplot()
  • Systolic blood pressure was extracted from the "vital_result" string by taking the value before the slash /.