Introduction to Biostatistics PDF

Introduction to biostatistics Dr. Nessren Farouk Lecturer of public health and community medicine  Research Research is the systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of data to answer a certain question or solve a problem It is crucial to follow cascading scientific...

Introduction to biostatistics Dr. Nessren Farouk Lecturer of public health and community medicine  Research Research is the systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of data to answer a certain question or solve a problem It is crucial to follow cascading scientific steps when conducting one’s research  Steps of Scientific Research Selection of area no need for study Selection of topic answers found Crude research question Literature review no answer Refined research question Research hypothesis, goals and objectives Study design Ethical issues Population & sampling Variables confounding bias Research tools Pilot study Work plan Collection of data Data management Interpretation Reporting Data and Information Information = Processed data Statistical manipulations: summarization example: Mean age of the students in this class Means of the age of last 10 classes to see the trend.  What is Statistics? The term statistics is concerned with scientific methods for collecting, organizing, presenting and analysis data, as well as drawing valid conclusions and making reasonable decisions on the basis of such analysis.  What is Biostatistics? Is the branch of statistics, which deal with collecting, presenting, summarizing, analyzing and interpreting sets of data in health field. It is the application of statistics in medical research, e.g.: –Clinical trials –Epidemiology –Pharmacology –Medical decision making –Comparative Effectiveness Research –etc. Uses of Biostatistics Hospital utility statistics Resource allocation Vaccination acceptance Magnitudes of a disease/condition Assessing risk factors Disease frequency Making diagnosis and choosing an appropriate treatment (implicit / probability).  Branches of Biostatistics Descriptive Biostatistics Methods of producing quantitative summaries of information in biological sciences. Tabulation and Graphical presentation  Branches of Biostatistics… Inferential Biostatistics Methods of making generalizations about a larger group based on information about a sample of that group in biological sciences. Primarily performed in two ways: O Estimation O Testing of hypothesis  vital statistics: the major source of information about the health of population is its vital statistics. By vital statistics we mean the data collected from ongoing recording, or registration of all "vital events”, deaths, marriages, fetal deaths, divorces.  Uses To evaluate the impact of various National Health Programs. To plan for better future measures of disease control. To explain the hereditary nature of the disease. To plan and evaluate economic and social development. It is a primary tool in research activities. To determine the health status of individual. To compare the health status of individual one nation with others. Statistical Analysis Key steps for a complete and accurate statistical analysis: State a valid research question Collect information (DATA) for answering this question Validate/clean/organize the collected data Analyze this data Translate numerical results into answers Interpret results and derive conclusions Present the results and communicate with people Terms in Biostatistics Data : –all the information we collect to answer the research question Variables : –Outcome, treatment, study population characteristics Subjects : –units on which characteristics are measured Observations : –data elements Population : –all the subjects of interest Sample : –a subset of the population for which data are collected