Variables: Research is all about measuring variables. Operationally define your variables according to how these will be measured during the study. How will your research instrument measure your variable?

Our study entitled "Epidemiologic Profile of Residents with Soil-Transmitted Helminthiasis in Lapu-Lapu City and Cebu City" aims to determine the following objectives:

1. To determine the demographic characteristics of residents of Lapu-Lapu City and Cebu City.
2. To determine the prevalence of soil-transmitted helminthiasis in terms of: a) prevalence of infection among residents, b) intensity of infection
3. To determine the degree of association between socio-demographic characteristics and the prevalence & intensity of soil-transmitted helminthiasis.

The variables of this study are the socio-demographic characteristics, the prevalence of infection, and lastly the intensity of the infection. The independent variable is the socio-demographics of the communities where the study will be conducted; the dependent variables are the prevalence and the intensity of the infection. 

Eight (8) barangays will be randomly selected to serve as the study site. From these 8 locations, each member will be assigned to one.

To measure the independent variable which is the socio-demographic factors, the data will be represented as percentage (%). An example of this factors are gender, age, income, occupations, educational status, and number of members in the family among many others. Taking age as an example, we may divide age into groups like young (1-12), teenager (13-17), adults (18+). This will be reported in percentage as to the data gathered.

For our dependent variables such as (a) prevalence, it would be measured in percentage (%) as to the number of individuals reporting infection over the total population that was collected in the secondary data. As for (b) intensity, our research would utilize by observing the number of eggs or ova in stool samples from the respondents. From this, we could analyze the intensity of eggs in the fecal matter as low, medium, high. Should we count a large number of eggs in present in the stool sample, we may be able to determine the intensity of the STH cases.