Full Description
Do you want to know what a parametric test is and when not to perform one? Do you get confused between odds ratios and relative risks? Want to understand the difference between sensitivity and specificity? Would like to find out what the fuss is about Bayes' theorem? Then this book is for you! Physicians need to understand the principles behind medical statistics. They don't need to learn the formula. The software knows it already! This book explains the fundamental concepts of medical statistics so that the learner will become confident in performing the most commonly used statistical tests. Each chapter is rich in anecdotes, illustrations, questions, and answers. Not enough? There is more material online with links to free statistical software, webpages, multimedia content, a practice dataset to get hands-on with data analysis, and a Single Best Answer questionnaire for the exam.
Contents
Preface; Acknowledgements; How to get the best out of this book; 1. Medicine and numbers: what is the connection?; 2. Measuring a variable: what is the difference between eye colour and height; 3. Summarising data: communicating easily; 4. Why average and range is not always enough: standard deviation and standard error; 5. The normal distribution: what's so 'normal' about it?; 6. Confidence interval: what is your guesstimate?; 7. Innocent until proven guilty! The null hypothesis; 8. Errors in hypothesis tests: learn your α from your β; 9. The randomized controlled trial: why does it have to be random?; 10. Choosing a statistical test: to t or not to t?; 11. Finding the odd one out: the ANOVA test; 12. Categorically different? The Chi-Squared test; 13. If the line fits: correlation and linear regression; 14. Hindsight is 20/20: logistic regression; 15. Don't risk the odds. risk vs odds as the outcome measure; 16. I will survive! Time to event data analysis; 17. High-ceiling or low threshold? Accuracy of a diagnostic test; 18. Apples or oranges? Meta-analysis of selected studies; 19. Lies, damned lies and statistics: untangling facts from fiction!; Glossary; Appendix 1. Are you ready to test yourself? Single Best Answer questionnaire; Appendix 2. Software and practice problems; Appendix 3. Practice database; Appendix 4. References and further reading; Appendix 5. Further resources.
