Essentials of Biostatistics in Public Health

by Lisa M. Sullivan

Essentials of Biostatistics in Public Health, Third Edition provides a fundamental and engaging background for students learning to apply and appropriately interpret biostatistics applications in the field of public health. Many examples are drawn directly from the author’s remarkable clinical experiences with the renowned Framingham Heart Study, making this text practical, interesting, and accessible for those with little mathematical background. The examples are real, relevant, and manageable in size so that students can easily focus on applications rather than become overwhelmed by computations. The Third Edition offers a new chapter on data visualization and interpretation including guidance on reporting statistical results in tables, figures and text. Examples of well-organized, detailed and appropriately formatted tables and figures are provided along with samples of how best to interpret them. Examples of poorly organized tables and figures are also included to illustrate common misinterpretations of results, due in part to lack of clarity in presentation. The text comes packaged with an access code card that gives your students access to an online workbook for statistical computing using Microsoft Excel. The online workbook is available in both Mac and PC versions. Updates to the Third Edition: • New chapter on data visualization and interpretation • New “When and Why” sections in each chapter include timely examples of important medical and public health applications of biostatistical techniques to help students connect the technical aspects of how specific analyses are conducted to real and relevant applications. New suggestions for instructors to facilitate in-class discussions around these applications and their interpretation are included in the instructor resources • New examples from widely publicized clinical trials and from relevant and timely studies added throughout. • New integrative exercises included in the instructor resources that allow students to practice biostatistical analysis with real data using Excel. • New link to a publicly available, longitudinal dataset containing data collected in the Framingham Heart Study

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Textbooks, Health, School

378 pages, Paperback

First published November 28, 2007

Reviews

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yes, it's a textbook.

It's written with the assumption that the reader has some amount of statistics knowledge, and expands on that knowledge with a focus on, as you might guess, public health and epidemiology. Even though my last previous statistics course was sometime in the first Clinton administration, I found this book's lessons and instructions easy to follow and very helpful in the classroom.

There is an online supplement to the book, but as far as I could find out, it's only accessible if you purchase the physical book. I bought a Kindle version and was unable to use the online component.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

If this book had an answer key then I’d give it 4 stars. I liked the clear layout, easy to follow examples and practice problems were good until they were because I had no means of knowing if I got the answer right. Still did them because the practice was helpful but frustrating as heck!

[Luna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This textbook is one of the few math related books that I actually read through the whole semester and didn't dread the weekly readings. The formulas were explained and built on in ways I felt comfortable with and could follow. I also found the sample problems worked out in the textbook to be understandable in one read through (a phenomenon I don't usually experience with quantitative textbook examples) without having the process explained by someone else first.