Practical Statistics For Medical Research

Practical Statistics for Medical Research is a problem-based text for medical researchers, medical students, and others in the medical arena who need to use statistics but have no specialized mathematics background. The author draws on twenty years of experience as a consulting medical statistician to provide clear explanations to key statistical concepts, with a firm emphasis on practical aspects of designing and analyzing medical research. Using real data and including dozens of interesting data sets, this bestselling text gives special attention to the presentation and interpretation of results and the many real problems that arise in medical research.

Most medical researchers, whether clinical or non-clinical, receive some background in statistics as undergraduates. However, it is most often brief, a long time ago, and largely forgotten by the time it is needed. Furthermore, many introductory texts fall short of adequately explaining the underlying concepts of statistics, and often are divorced from the reality of conducting and assessing medical research. Practical Statistics for Medical Research is a problem-based text for medical researchers, medical students, and others in the medical arena who need to use statistics but have no specialized mathematics background. The author draws on twenty years of experience as a consulting medical statistician to provide clear explanations to key statistical concepts, with a firm emphasis on practical aspects of designing and analyzing medical research. The text gives special attention to the presentation and interpretation of results and the many real problems that arise in medical research.

This book serves as a practical guide to methods and statistics in medical research. It includes step-by-step instructions on using SPSS software for statistical analysis, as well as relevant examples to help those readers who are new to research in health and medical fields. Simple texts and diagrams are provided to help explain the concepts covered, and print screens for the statistical steps and the SPSS outputs are provided, together with interpretations and examples of how to report on findings. Brief Guidelines for Methods and Statistics in Medical Research offers a valuable quick reference guide for healthcare students and practitioners conducting research in health related fields, written in an accessible style.

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Now in its second edition, Practical Statistics for Nursing and Health Care provides a sound foundation for nursing, midwifery and other health care students and early career professionals, guiding readers through the often daunting subject of statistics ‘from scratch’. Making no assumptions about one’s existing knowledge, the text develops in complexity as the material and concepts become more familiar, allowing readers to build the confidence and skills to apply various formula and techniques to their own data. The authors explain common methods of interpreting data sets and explore basic statistical principles that enable nurses and health care professionals to decide on suitable treatment, as well as equipping readers with the tools to critically appraise clinical trials and epidemiology journals. Offers information on statistics presented in a clear, straightforward manner Covers all basic statistical concepts and tests, and includes worked examples, case studies, and data sets Provides an understanding of how data collected can be processed for the patients’ benefit Contains a new section on how to calculate and use percentiles Written for students, qualified nurses and other healthcare professionals, Practical Statistics for Nursing and Health Care is a hands-on guide to gaining rapid proficiency in statistics.

A hands-on guide to using statistics in health research, from planning, through analysis, and on to reporting A Practical Approach to Using Statistics in Health Research offers an easy to use, step-by-step guide for using statistics in health research. The authors use their experience of statistics and health research to explain how statistics fit in to all stages of the research process. They explain how to determine necessary sample sizes, interpret whether there are statistically significant difference in outcomes between groups, and use measured effect sizes to decide whether any changes are large enough to be relevant to professional practice. The text walks you through how to identify the main outcome measure for your study and the factor which you think may influence that outcome and then determine what type of data will be used to record both of these. It then describes how this information is used to select the most appropriate methods to report and analyze your data. A step-by-step guide on how to use a range of common statistical procedures are then presented in separate chapters. To help you make sure that you are using statistics robustly, the authors also explore topics such as multiple testing and how to check whether measured data follows a normal distribution. Videos showing how to use computer packages to carry out all the various methods mentioned in the book are available on our companion web site. This book: • Covers statistical aspects of all the stages of health research from planning to final reporting • Explains how to report statistical planning, how analyses were performed, and the results and conclusion • Puts the spotlight on consideration of clinical significance and not just statistical significance • Explains the importance of reporting 95% confidence intervals for effect size • Includes a systematic guide for selection of statistical tests and uses example data sets and videos to help you understand exactly how to use statistics Written as an introductory guide to statistics for healthcare professionals, students and lecturers in the fields of pharmacy, nursing, medicine, dentistry, physiotherapy, and occupational therapy, A Practical Approach to Using Statistics in Health Research:From Planning to Reporting is a handy reference that focuses on the application of statistical methods within the health research context.

Medical Statistics provides the necessary statistical tools to enable researchers to undertake and understand evidence-based clinical research. It is a practical guide to conducting statistical research and interpreting statistics in the context of how the participants were recruited, how the study was designed, what types of variables were used, what effect size was found, and what the P values mean. It guides researchers through the process of selecting the correct statistics and show how to best report results for presentation and publication. Clear and concise explanations, combined with plenty of examples and tabulated explanations are based on the authors’ popular medical statistics courses. The table of contents is divided into sections according to whether data are continuous or categorical in nature as this distinction is fundamental to selecting the correct statistics. Each chapter provides a clear step-by-step guide to each statistical test with practical instructions on how to generate and interpret the numbers, and present the results as scientific tables or graphs. The chapters conclude with critical appraisal guidelines to help researchers review the reporting of results from each type of statistical test. This new edition includes a new chapter on repeated measures and mixed models and a helpful glossary of terms provides an easy reference that applies to all chapters.

Succinctly explains statistical terms encountered in medicine using non-technical language, giving advice on common pitfalls in techniques.