Number of cases of malaria detected in 10yrs are 100, 160, 190, 250, 300, 300, 320, 320, 550, 380. How to calculate the average number of cases per year-

Okay, let's tackle this question. The user is asking about calculating the average number of malaria cases over 10 years with the given data. The options aren't provided, but the correct answer is probably the mean. Let me think through the steps.

First, the core concept here is calculating the arithmetic mean. That's the standard way to find an average. So, the principle is summing all the values and dividing by the number of values. The user provided 10 data points, so sum them all and divide by 10.

Now, let's verify. The numbers are 100, 160, 190, 250, 300, 300, 320, 320, 550, 380. Adding these up step by step: 100+160=260, +190=450, +250=700, +300=1000, +300=1300, +320=1620, +320=1940, +550=2490, +380=2870. Total sum is 2870. Divided by 10 years gives 287 cases per year. So the average is 287.

For the wrong options, maybe someone might mistakenly calculate the median or mode. The median would be the average of the 5th and 6th values when sorted. The sorted list is 100, 160, 190, 250, 300, 300, 320, 320, 380, 550. Median is (300+300)/2=300. The mode is 300 and 320, each appearing twice. So options suggesting 300 or 320 would be incorrect. Another mistake could be adding incorrectly, like missing a number, leading to a different total.

Clinical pearl here is to always check if the question asks for mean, median, or mode. In public health data, mean is commonly used for averages, but medians are better for skewed data. Since malaria cases can have outliers (like 550), the mean might be higher than the median, but the question specifically asks for average, which is mean.

So the correct answer is the mean of 287. The options not provided, but the correct method is sum and divide by 10.

**Core Concept**
The question tests the calculation of the **arithmetic mean**, a fundamental statistical measure used to determine the average value in a dataset. The mean is calculated by summing all observed values and dividing by the number of observations.

**Why the Correct Answer is Right**
To calculate the average number of malaria cases per year, sum all the annual cases and divide by the total number of years (10).
Sum = 100 + 160 + 190 + 250 + 300 + 300 + 320 + 320 + 55

✓ Correct Answer: A. Arithmetic mean