Product Description

This book provides a nonmathematical introduction to statistics to medical students, physicians, researchers, and graduate students in biological sciences. The goal has been to explain statistical principles in plain language so one can understand the results published in biological and medical journals. Like all statistical books, this one proves a few mathematical theorems and provides step-by-step methods for some statistical tests. But the emphasis is always on how to interpret the results, not on how to perform the tests. This book differs from other available introductory biostatistics books in several ways: 1)Broader range of topics. Leaf through current issues of major medical and scientific journals and you're sure to see articles whose conclusions are based on advanced statistical techniques not covered in most introductory books: survival curves, logistic regression, proportional hazards regression, nonlinear regression, Bayesian analysis, lod scores. Although it is impossible to discuss all these topics in depth in a short introductory book, this book explains what the tests are used for and how to interpret the results. 2)Emphasis on interpretation, not calculation. Many books devote many pages to step-by-step instructions for calculating statistical tests. This book assumes that the calculations will be done by computer, so places little emphasis on the mechanics of the calculations (and marks those sections, so they can be skipped). Instead, this book emphasizes understanding the assumptions the tests are based on and the interpretation of the results. 3)Emphasis on confidence intervals over P values. This book presents the concepts of confidence intervals before explaining P values. This makes it easier for the student to understand both.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #290540 in Books
• Published on: 1996-02-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 408 pages

Review
"I like this book much, I will be "beta-testing" it on my upper-level undergraduate biostatistics class. It fills a great need for my students."--Harriette Phelps, University of D.C.
"This splendid book meets a major need in public health, medicine, and biomedical research training--a user-friendly biostatistics text for non-mathematicians."--Gilbert S. Omenn, Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs at the University of Michigan
"Motulsky has written a very readable and delightful account of how statistics are used in biology and medicine...He focuses on clinical studies and covers a broad range of topics, including...such specialized areas as survival analysis, Bayesian inference, and logistic regression." --Quarterly Review of Biology
"The unique aspect of the book, which makes it different from other biostatistics books, is its approach to the content...His goal is to help the reader interpret medical literature rather than analyze a set of data....I higly recommend this book for those needing a non-mathematical, explanatory introduction to biostatistics. It is well-written and provides wonderful clinical examples and biostatistical content...An excellent resource book for medical students and housestaff who are struggling along with the concepts; and for those of you who were wondering, it was surprisingly easy to read."--Joseph Chu, MD, MPH, University of Washington in Teaching and Learning Medicine

About the Author
Harvey Motulsky is also President, GraphPad Software, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Clear and attractive
Written for the researcher, and useful for those commenting on research, Prof. Motulsky explains what your statistical remarks might actually mean. Underlying assumptions are set out for every topic; warnings of common mistakes and sound advice abound. The book is written in tempting, encouraging language, the coverage is broad - up to but not including multivariate methods - and is a well presented paperback. I'm so glad that I heeded a recommendation and bought it.

good foundation for further inquiry into stats
A really nifty book for anyone--and that's most of us--interested in what basic statistical tests mean and how to use them. Even someone with a pretty advanced knowledge of statistics may not understand all of the intuitive concepts described in this book. Consistent with its title, it is probably best suited for those in the biosciences, rather than engineers, for example, but I'd say that people in those more technical fields may very well benefit greatly from reading it. It's written in a conversational manner that is easy to digest. I'd say a lot of thinking by the author went into creating it, because he seems to guess what the reader may be thinking and then answers those questions. He's big on the confidence interval, too. Readers who need more specialized, detailed info on a particular topic, such as two-way ANOVA, probably need to consult an additional text. Overall, a great introduction to fundamental statistical concepts and tests, that will be of interest to biological scientists and many other folks, too. Author of Adjust Your Brain: A Practical Theory for Maximizing Mental Health.

A must for anyone new to biomedical statistics
This book is excellent. It sets out in plain english the underlying principles of statistical analysis in a clear and comprehensible manner. The coverage is at the basic level of statistical analysis, and covers the concepts of significance and confidence intervals, odds-ratios, trend tests, linear and logistic regression (no GLM's, latent class analysis, principal components, variance components etc.). The topics covered are illustrated superbly with excellent examples (including some drawn from genetics).

As a genetics statistician I have a number of people who seek assistance with statistics and if they are ever struggling with some of the basics I reccomend this book to them.