Medical Biostatistics

Medical Uncertainties
Role of Biostatistics
Uncertainties in Health and Disease
Uncertainties in Medical Research
Uncertainties in Health Planning and Evaluation
Management of Uncertainties: About This Book

Basics of Medical Studies
Study Protocol
Types of Medical Studies
Data Collection
Nonsampling Errors and Other Biases

Sampling Methods
Sampling Concepts
Common Methods of Random Sampling
Some Other Methods of Sampling

Designs for Observational Studies
Some Basic Concepts
Prospective Studies
Retrospective Studies.
Cross-Sectional Studies
Comparative Performance of Prospective, Retrospective, and Cross-Sectional Studies

Medical Experiments
Basic Features of Medical Experiments
Design of Experiments
Choice and Sampling of Units for Laboratory Experiments6

Clinical Trials
Therapeutic Trials
Issues in Clinical Trials
Trials Other than Therapeutics

Numerical Methods for Representing Variation
Types of Measurement
Tabular Presentation
Rates and Ratios
Central and Other Locations
Measuring Variability

Presentation of Variation by Figures
Graphs for Frequency Distribution
Pie, Bar, and Line Diagrams
Special Diagrams in Health and Medicine
Charts and Maps

Some Quantitative Aspects of Medicine
Some Epidemiological Measures of Health and Disease
Reference Values
Measurement of Uncertainty: Probability
Validity of Medical Tests
Search for the Best Threshold of Continuous Test: ROC Curve

Clinimetrics and Evidence-Based Medicine
Indicators, Indexes, and Scores
Clinimetrics
Evidence-Based Medicine

Measurement of Community Health
Indicators of Mortality
Measures of Morbidity
Indicators of Social and Mental Health
Composite Indexes of Health

Confidence Intervals, Principles of Tests of Significance, and Sample Size
Sampling Distributions
Confidence Intervals
P-Values and Statistical Significance
Assessing Gaussian Pattern
Initial Debate on Statistical Significance
Sample Size Determination in Some Cases

Inference from Proportions
One Qualitative Variable
Proportions in 2 x 2 Tables
Analysis of R x C Tables (Large n)
Three-Way Tables
Assessment of Association in Three-Way Tables

Relative Risk and Odds Ratio
Relative and Attributable Risks (Large n)
Odds Ratio
Stratified Analysis, Sample Size, and Meta Analysis

Inference from Means
Comparison of Means in One and Two Groups (Gaussian Conditions): Student t-Test
Comparison of Means in Three or More Groups (Gaussian Conditions): ANOVA F-Test
Non-Gaussian Conditions: Nonparametric Tests for Location
When Significant Is Not Significant

Relationships: Quantitative Data
Some General Features of a Regression Setup
Linear Regression Models
Some Issues in Linear Regression
Measuring the Strength of Quantitative Relationship
Assessment of Quantitative Agreement

Relationships: Qualitative Dependent.
Binary Dependent: Logistic Regression (Large n)
Inference from Logistic Coefficients
Issues in Logistic Regression
Some Models for Qualitative Data and Generalizations
Strength of Relationship in Qualitative Variables

Survival Analysis
Life Expectancy
Analysis of Survival Data
Issues in Survival Analysis

Simultaneous Consideration of Several Variables
Scope of Multivariate Methods
Dependent and Independent Sets of Variables
Identification of Structure in the Observations

Quality Considerations
Statistical Quality Control in Medical Care
Quality of Measurements
Quality of Statistical Models: Robustness
Quality of Data

Statistical Fallacies
Problems with the Sample
Inadequate Analysis
Errors in Presentation of Findings
Misinterpretation

Appendix A: Statistical Software
Appendix B: Some Statistical Tables
Appendix C: Software Illustrations