Making Data Management Decisions

The below SAS code will be using the Addhealth data set to analyse people falling under different weight groups and what is the percentage of people opting for one of the three selected ways to lose weight. The three options are:

1. Consumption of diet pills

2. Consumption of Laxatives

3. Exercise

The output will show the frequency distributions for the selected variables.

SAS Code :

Output:
                                                                                   The FREQ Procedure

weightgroup	Frequency	Percent	Cumulative Frequency	Cumulative Percent
1	517	8.14	517	8.14
2	5502	86.63	6019	94.77
3	322	5.07	6341	99.84
4	7	0.11	6348	99.95
5	3	0.05	6351	100.00
Frequency Missing = 153

Diet pills consumption in last 7 days
H1GH30D	Frequency	Percent	Cumulative Frequency	Cumulative Percent
0	4415	67.98	4415	67.98
1	43	0.66	4458	68.64
7	2037	31.36	6495	100.00
Frequency Missing = 9

Laxatives consumption in last 7 days
H1GH30E	Frequency	Percent	Cumulative Frequency	Cumulative Percent
0	4446	68.45	4446	68.45
1	12	0.18	4458	68.64
7	2037	31.36	6495	100.00
Frequency Missing = 9

Exercised in last 7 days
H1GH31B	Frequency	Percent	Cumulative Frequency	Cumulative Percent
0	647	9.95	647	9.95
1	588	9.04	1235	18.99
7	5269	81.01	6504	100.00

Summary:
I have grouped the sample in five groups based on the weight ranges >=100 lbs, 101 to 200, 200 to 300, 300 to 400 and group 5 for not applicable values. We see, there are 153 missing entries for this table.

The second and third tables represent the frequency distribution for those who consumed diet pills and laxatives respectively as a measure to lose weight in last 7 days. Value 0 represent "not marked"(not consumed) and value 1 represent "marked" (consumed). Value 7 represent "legitimate skip" which means that the person didn't need to reduce the weight. Both the tables show missing frequency as 9.

The last table shows the frequency for those who opted for exercise routing to reduce weight in last 7 days. Value 0 represent not marked(no exercise) and 1 represents (opted exercise). 7 again represents "legitimate skip".

From the above tables, we can make out that people are opting for healthy ways like exercise to lose weight. A small section of people go for diet pills or laxatives.

On performing similar frequency distribution for different weight groups separately, I found out that people from group 100 lbs to 200 lbs were more weight conscious and performed exercise or opted for other ways to lose weight.  For higher weight group, people were no more bothered about their weight and there was a steep fall in weight reduction frequency, be it exercise or pills or laxatives.