Investigation of factors influencing health status by CHAID analysis method (METU example)

In increasing the quality of life to the desired level, the improvement of the health status of the individual and the societies acquires great attention. However, the health status is affected by some factors which are environmental, economic, psychological and personal. With this aim, factors influencing the health status as an independent variable, Middle East Technical University (METU), Department of Basic English' (DBE) students the overall health status have been tried to be revealed in this study. To carry out the study, a questionnaire was developed for the determination of the factors affecting health status. The data obtained from this study were analyzed by using CHAID analysis which is one of the decision trees located in data mining technique.In the first chapter of the study, what is the concept of health and the factors affecting health status are given. In the second chapter, the definition of Data Mining, its application areas and process are mentioned. In addition, the decision trees located within the new generation of data mining methods are given. Information about what is CHAID analysis located in the decision trees and used in the study are given in the second chapter again. In the third chapter of the study, the purpose of the study, the importance of the study,a method used in the study, and information related to the scope of the study. The universe of the study is also included within the scope of study. Finally, the results obtained by CHAID analysis and recommendations are given. As a result of the foregoing analysis, 6 branching and 13 nodes were obtained. The most important variable affecting the dependent variable the overall health status is standard of living variable. Other branches are respectively gender, illness that requires constant drug use, the use of smoking in the environment, utilization of health services due to economic reasons and standard of living variable. Key Words: 1.Health 2.Health Status 3.Data Mining 4.Decision Trees 5.CHAİD Analysis