An example of ordinal data is which of the following?

An example of ordinal data is which of the following?

• A. Blood type
• B. Height in centimeters
• C. Time to complete a task in seconds
• D. Categorization of patient assistance level (independent, SBA, dependent)

Answer: (D)

Ordinal data are categories with a meaningful order but without assuming equal distances between them. The categorization of patient assistance level—independent, SBA, dependent—fits this: you can rank a patient from most independent to least, so there is a clear order, but the differences between levels aren’t guaranteed to be equal. Blood type is nominal (no inherent order among types). Height in centimeters and time to complete a task are numeric measurements with meaningful intervals and a true zero, so they are interval/ratio data. Therefore, the example that reflects an ordered set of categories is the one with assistance levels.

Ordinal data are categories with a meaningful order but without assuming equal distances between them. The categorization of patient assistance level—independent, SBA, dependent—fits this: you can rank a patient from most independent to least, so there is a clear order, but the differences between levels aren’t guaranteed to be equal. Blood type is nominal (no inherent order among types). Height in centimeters and time to complete a task are numeric measurements with meaningful intervals and a true zero, so they are interval/ratio data. Therefore, the example that reflects an ordered set of categories is the one with assistance levels.