Certification Board of Infection Control and Epidemiology (CBIC) 2025 – 400 Free Practice Questions to Pass the Exam

The correct choice involves the ordinal scale, which is characterized by ordered categorical responses. In this scale, the data is arranged in a meaningful order, which allows comparison between categories based on a ranking system. For instance, survey responses such as "satisfied," "neutral," and "dissatisfied" illustrate ordered categories where one can infer that "satisfied" represents a higher level of agreement than "neutral."

The ordinal scale does not provide information on the magnitude of differences between ranks or categories, only that one category is higher or lower than another. This is a key distinguishing feature from the nominal scale, which lacks any inherent order. In contrast, interval and ratio scales involve numerical measurements and allow for both comparison of ranks and the identification of exact differences in quantity, but these features are not applicable to ordered categorical responses. Therefore, the ordinal scale is specifically built to address situations where the ranking of responses is significant.