Medical Statistics Made Easy, fourth edition

Michael Harris, Gordon Taylor

• Publisher: Scion Publishing
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781911510734
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Biostatistics

Contains all you need to know to understand statistics in medicine. Medical Statistics Made Easy has been a perennial bestseller since the first edition was published (it is consistently a #1 bestseller in medical statistics/biostatistics on Amazon).It is recommended and required worldwide on a variety of courses and programmes, from undergraduate medicine, through to professional medical qualifications.It is a book of key statistics principles for anyone studying or working in medicine and healthcare who needs a basic overview of the subject. It is ideal for non-statisticians who need to understand how statistics are used and applied in medicine and medical research.Using a consistent format, the authors describe the most common statistical methods in turn and then rate them on how difficult they are to understand and how common they are. The worked examples that demonstrate the statistical method in action include current articles from the medical literature and now feature a wider range of medical journals.This fourth edition continues with the same structure as the previous editions, with new sections on cut-off points and ROC curves, as well as a new chapter on choosing the right statistical test. It also features a completely revised and updated 'Statistics at work' section.

Chapter 1
How to use this book

You can use this book in a number of ways.

If you want a statistics course

• Work through from start to finish for a complete course in commonly used medical statistics.

If you are in a hurry

• Choose the sections with the most stars to learn about the commonest statistical methods and terms.

• You may wish to start with these 5-star sections: percentages (Chapter 3), mean (Chapter 4), median (Chapter 5), standard deviation (Chapter 7), confidence intervals (Chapter 8) and P values (Chapter 9).

If you are daunted by statistics

• If you are bewildered every time someone tries to explain a statistical method, then pick out the sections with the most thumbs up symbols to find the easiest and most basic concepts.

• You may want to start with percentages (Chapter 3), mean (Chapter 4), median (Chapter 5) and mode (Chapter 6), then move on to risk ratio (Chapter 13), incidence and prevalence (Chapter 22).

If you are taking an exam

EXAM
TIP!

• The “Exam Tips” give you pointers to the topics which examiners like to ask about.

• You will find these in the following sections: mean (Chapter 4), standard deviation (Chapter 7), confidence intervals (Chapter 8), P values (Chapter 9), risk reduction and NNT (Chapter 15), sensitivity, specificity and predictive value (Chapter 20), incidence and prevalence (Chapter 22).

Test your understanding

• See how statistical methods are used in five extracts from real-life papers in the “Statistics at work” section (Chapters 23–28).

• Work out which statistical methods have been used, why, and what the results mean. Then check your understanding in our commentaries.

Glossary

• Use the Glossary as a quick reference for statistical words or phrases that you do not know.

Study advice

• Go through difficult sections when you are fresh and try not to cover too much at once.

• You may need to read some sections a couple of times before the meaning sinks in. You will find that the examples help you to understand the principles.

• We have tried to cut down the jargon as much as possible. If there is a word that you do not understand, check it out in the Glossary.

Chapter 2
How this book is designed

Every section uses the same series of headings to help you understand the concepts.

“How important is it?”

We noted how often statistical terms were used in 200 quantitative papers in mainstream medical journals. All the research papers selected for this survey were published during 2019/2020 in the British Medical Journal, The Lancet, the New England Journal of Medicine, PLOS Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association.

We grouped the terms into concepts and graded them by how often they were used. This helped us to develop a star system for importance. We also took into account usefulness to readers. For example, “numbers needed to treat” are not often quoted but are fairly easy to calculate and useful in making treatment decisions.

Concepts which are used in the majority of medical papers.

Important concepts which are used in at least a third of papers.

Less frequently used, but still of value in decision-making.

Found in at least 1 in 10 papers.

Rarely used in medical journals.

How easy is it to understand?

We have found that the ability of health care professionals to understand statistical concepts varies m...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• IFC Pages
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Abbreviations
• Preface
• About the authors
• Ch 1 How to use this book
• Ch 2 How this book is designed
• Ch 3 Percentages
• Ch 4 Mean
• Ch 5 Median
• Ch 6 Mode
• Ch 7 Standard deviation
• Ch 8 Confidence intervals
• Ch 9 P values
• Ch 10 t tests and other parametric tests
• Ch 11 Mann–Whitney and other non-parametric tests
• Ch 12 Chi-squared test
• Ch 13 Risk ratio
• Ch 14 Odds ratio
• Ch 15 Risk reduction and number needed to treat
• Ch 16 Correlation
• Ch 17 Regression
• Ch 18 Survival analysis: life tables and Kaplan–Meier plots
• Ch 19 The Cox regression model
• Ch 20 Sensitivity, specificity and predictive value
• Ch 21 Level of agreement
• Ch 22 Other concepts
• Ch 23 Introduction
• Ch 24 Means, standard deviations, medians and odds ratios
• Ch 25 Confidence intervals and number needed to treat
• Ch 26 Correlation and regression
• Ch 27 Survival analysis
• Ch 28 Sensitivity, specificity and predictive values
• Ch 29 Choosing the right statistical test
• Glossary
• Index
• Back Cover