Public Health Degrees. Public health programs focus on protecting and improving the health of communities. Students in these programs learn to conduct disease-related research and analyze the effects of genetics and the environment on an individual's health.
What is a 'Z-Score'. A Z-score is a numerical measurement of a value's relationship to the mean in a group of values. If a Z-score is 0, it represents the score is identical to the mean score. Z-scores may also be positive or negative, with a positive value indicating the score is above the mean and a negative score indicating it is below the mean. Positive and negative scores also reveal the number of standard deviations the score is either above or below the mean.
1. Use the following format to find a z-score: z = X - Î¼ / Ï. This formula allows you to calculate a z-score for any data point in your sample. 1  Remember, a z-score is a measure of how many standard deviations a data point is away from the mean.2  In the formula X represents the figure you want to examine. To find the Z score of a sample, you'll need to find the mean, variance and standard deviation of the sample. To calculate the z-score, you will find the difference between a value in the sample and the mean, and divide it by the standard deviation.