Essential Medical Statistics

by Betty R. Kirkwood, Jonathan A.C. Sterne

Blackwell Publishing is delighted to announce that this book has been Highly Commended in the 2004 BMA Medical Book Competition. Here is the judges' summary of this "This is a technical book on a technical subject but presented in a delightful way. There are many books on statistics for doctors but there are few that are excellent and this is certainly one of them. Statistics is not an easy subject to teach or write about. The authors have succeeded in producing a book that is as good as it can get. For the keen student who does not want a book for mathematicians, this is an excellent first book on medical statistics." Essential Medical Statistics is a classic amongst medical statisticians. An introductory textbook, it presents statistics with a clarity and logic that demystifies the subject, while providing a comprehensive coverage of advanced as well as basic methods. The second edition of Essential Medical Statistics has been comprehensively revised and updated to include modern statistical methods and modern approaches to statistical analysis, while retaining the approachable and non-mathematical style of the first edition. The book now includes full coverage of the most commonly used regression models, multiple linear regression, logistic regression, Poisson regression and Cox regression, as well as a chapter on general issues in regression modelling. In addition, new chapters introduce more advanced topics such as meta-analysis, likelihood, bootstrapping and robust standard errors, and analysis of clustered data. Aimed at students of medical statistics, medical researchers, public health practitioners and practising clinicians using statistics in their daily work, the book is designed as both a teaching and a reference text. The format of the book is clear with highlighted formulae and worked examples, so that all concepts are presented in a simple, practical and easy-to-understand way. The second edition enhances the emphasis on choice of appropriate methods with new chapters on strategies for analysis and measures of association and impact. Essential Medical Statistics is supported by a web site at www.blackwellpublishing.com/essential... . This useful online resource provides statistical datasets to download, as well as sample chapters and future updates.

Genres: Nonfiction, Textbooks, Science, Reference, Mathematics

512 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 2001

Reviews

[Ali Ahmadi]

یه منبع تقریبن قدیمی و مقدماتی، اما جامع، که هر چیزی که دانشجو/پژوهشگر زیست‌پزشکی تو زمینه‌ی آمار زیستی نیاز داره فراهم می‌کنه. شروع از مفاهیم بنیادی آمار و تی‌تست و آنووا رسیدن به اسم‌های همیشه‌ترسناک رگرسیون خطی و لجیستیک و مطالعه‌های مقطعی و گذشته‌نگر و فلان و بهمان به زبون ساده و با مثال‌‌های خوب.

[James Redmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my opinion, by far the best textbook for those wanting to gain a stronger grasp of the basic principles and techniques of statistics for medicine and population health research. I like the fact that it has a sensible structure, from basic concepts to more advanced methods, and is also based on the type of study design. It includes links to online webpages, where one can download and practice examples using STATA software (advantageous - especially to re-affirm topics in ones mind). Highly recommended for health / medical students as a learning resource, or for researchers as a 'go-to' in order to clarify and confirm statistical concepts.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is obviously not a book I read for the good of my health. I am very thankful that I read Spiegelhalter's incomparable 'The Art of Statistics' first, because let me tell you, Kirkwood does not give one shit about making this material interesting, readable, or understandable. Let's hope the pages and pages of calculations stay in the 80s where they belong. Watch this space...

[Pacific Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're somewhat familiar with medical statistics, this book can be useful for further consolidating the information, there are many illustrative examples that you can run through. Be advised though, there is apparently a new version of this book coming out on May 23, 2019 according to Amazon.

If you want to test your statistics software, the datasets used in some of the examples can be found online, along with the errata list:

https://www.blackwellpublishing.com/e...

I am not sure how useful this book would be for you as a first pass. I recommend starting with the free online Stanford course on medical statistics before jumping into this text, which is what I did. Dr. Saiani is a great teacher, and if you do the homework assignments you will get a great understanding of the basics:

https://lagunita.stanford.edu/courses...

Best of luck!

[Sumudu Perera · Rating 5 out of 5]

This textbook was summarily read as part of a great statistics for public health and policy course. Very well presented. Too much detail for the contents of the course but it’s always good to have more than less. Will return to this again at a later date.

[Rabeea'h Waseem · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sigh, the things I need to learn to translate affect to potent effect.

[Uyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Considering the fact this book is a prescribed reading, I think I have enjoyed it way more than I should have.