Biostatistics for Dummies

Biostatistics is a required course for students of medicine, epidemiology, forestry, agriculture, bioinformatics, and public health. In years past this course has been mainly a graduate-level requirement; however its application is growing and course offerings at the undergraduate level are exploding. Biostatistics For Dummies is an excellent resource for those taking a course, as well as for those in need of a handy reference to this complex material.

Biostatisticians—analysts of biological data—are charged with finding answers to some of the world's most pressing health questions: how safe or effective are drugs hitting the market today? What causes autism? What are the risk factors for cardiovascular disease? Are those risk factors different for men and women or different ethnic groups? Biostatistics For Dummies examines these and other questions associated with the study of biostatistics.

• Provides plain-English explanations of techniques and clinical examples to help
• Serves as an excellent course supplement for those struggling with the complexities of the biostatistics
• Tracks to a typical, introductory biostatistics course

Biostatistics For Dummies is an excellent resource for anyone looking to succeed in this difficult course.

John C. Pezzullo, PhD, has held faculty appointments in the departments of biomathematics and biostatistics, pharmacology, nursing, and internal medicine at Georgetown University. He is semi-retired and continues to teach biostatistics and clinical trial design online to Georgetown University students.

Part I: Beginning with Biostatistics Basics 7

Chapter 1: Biostatistics 101 9

Chapter 2: Overcoming Mathophobia: Reading and Understanding Mathematical Expressions 17

Chapter 3: Getting Statistical: A Short Review of Basic Statistics 31

Chapter 4: Counting on Statistical Software 51

Chapter 5: Conducting Clinical Research 61

Chapter 6: Looking at Clinical Trials and Drug Development 77

Part II: Getting Down and Dirty with Data 91

Chapter 7: Getting Your Data into the Computer 93

Chapter 8: Summarizing and Graphing Your Data 103

Chapter 9: Aiming for Accuracy and Precision 121

Chapter 10: Having Confi dence in Your Results 133

Chapter 11: Fuzzy In Equals Fuzzy Out: Pushing Imprecision through a Formula 143

Part III: Comparing Groups 153

Chapter 12: Comparing Average Values between Groups 155

Chapter 13: Comparing Proportions and Analyzing Cross-Tabulations 173

Chapter 14: Taking a Closer Look at Fourfold Tables 189

Chapter 15: Analyzing Incidence and Prevalence Rates in Epidemiologic Data 203

Chapter 16: Feeling Noninferior (Or Equivalent) 211

Part IV: Looking for Relationships with Correlation and Regression 219

Chapter 17: Introducing Correlation and Regression 221

Chapter 18: Getting Straight Talk on Straight-Line Regression 233

Chapter 19: More of a Good Thing: Multiple Regression 251

Chapter 20: A Yes-or-No Proposition: Logistic Regression 267

Chapter 21: Other Useful Kinds of Regression 291

Part V: Analyzing Survival Data 311

Chapter 22: Summarizing and Graphing Survival Data 313

Chapter 23: Comparing Survival Times 331

Chapter 24: Survival Regression 339

Part VI: The Part of Tens 357

Chapter 25: Ten Distributions Worth Knowing 359

Chapter 26: Ten Easy Ways to Estimate How Many Subjects You Need 369

Index 375

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