Description:

Clinicians are concerned enough with “how to care for patients?” they ask why biostatistics, we are not mathematicians!! in the modern era; this is a real error of thinking. clinicians are attacked with new information daily. you should extract evidence yourself for scientific papers. but, without a basic understanding of statistics, it is impossible to critically read a scientific paper.

Content:

1. Basic Concepts
• Structure of a research article
• Primary and Secondary research
• Why statistics?
• Population and samples
• Parameter and statistic
2. Types of DATA: Variables
• Types of variables
• Description of variables
• Independent and Dependent variables
• Factor and Outcome
3. Have the authors set the scene correctly?
• Study design
• Have they determined whether their groups are comparable, and, if necessary, adjusted for baseline differences?
• Was the study original?
• Whom is the study about?
• Was the design of the study sensible?
• Was systematic bias avoided or minimized?
• Was assessment “blind”?
• Preliminary statistical questions; Sample size, Duration of follow up, Completeness of follow up
4. RCTs
5. Probability and confidence
• Hypothesis testing
• Confidence intervals
6. Common Statistical Tests and Their Interpretation
• Have they used appropriate statistical tests?
• Paired data, tails, and outliers
• Parametric vs. Nonparametric tests
• Odds Ratio, Relative Risk
• Correlation, regression, and causation
• Multivariate analysis
7. Papers that report diagnostic or screening tests
• Validating tests against a gold standard
• Agreement
• ROC, cut-off values
8. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses