Product Description

Practical Statistics for Medical Research is a problem-based text for medical researchers, medical students, and others in the medical arena who need to use statistics but have no specialized mathematics background. The author draws on twenty years of experience as a consulting medical statistician to provide clear explanations to key statistical concepts, with a firm emphasis on practical aspects of designing and analyzing medical research. Using real data and including dozens of interesting data sets, this bestselling text gives special attention to the presentation and interpretation of results and the many real problems that arise in medical research.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #104442 in Books
• Published on: 1990-11-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 624 pages

Review
..".valuable to medical students and statisticians entering the field..." -Medical Publications _ "Admirably clear presentations of concepts...our department is so impressed by its conceptual clarity that we plan to introduce it into our courses for physician scientists and graduate students of the health sciences." -Short Book Reviews of the International Statistical Institute "A winner...The text is comfortably fluent; it describes and explains without jargon or obscurities. The mathematic segments are clearly presented and should be accessible to any college graduate...[Altman] has provided health care professionals with a remarkably instructive, accessible, and useful guidebook...this is the most impressive monograph on medical statistics that I have read." -American Journal of Diseases of Children "offers useful information to statisticians on the realistic limitations to be found in clinical research. There is much helpful background explanation, but where the book scores is that it uses real examples of real data, both in explaining how not to do it and in the carefully worked examples of the various techniquesIn short, it is the best book on statistics from medical research I have come across, in terms of both completeness and intelligibility." -J.S.Lilleyman, Journal of Clinical Pathology .."this book is far from being a theoretical textbook; it is very readable, full of relevant practical advice with its feet firmly on the ground, and based on the author's considerable experience of medical researchI found much to applaud and very little to criticise." -S. Thompson, British Medical Journal, 1991 "This is a rich resource for private study and for a teacher preparing materialfor undergraduates and postgraduates." -D. Ashby, Statistics in Medicine, 1991 "is refreshingly different from every other statistics book I have seenis scientifically rigorous when discussing practical problems encountered in planning and analyzing biologic and clinical researchI recommend it enthusiastically to clinical investigators." -H.J.Motulsky, New England Journal of Medicine, 1991 "This book fulfils its original intention of being a solid reference book for the medical researcher. I enjoyed reading it, and can thoroughly recommend it." -P.Stell, International Journal of Epidemiology "This book is, of course, now almost 10 years old. In general its age does not showis intended to appeal to and to interest medical researchers with little knowledge of statistics. A review by a statistician cannot assess how well this is achieved, but it is indicative of success that this is the ninth reprint." --Nigel Stallard, University of Reading, Book Reviews

From the Back Cover
Most medical researchers, whether clinical or non-clinical, receive some background in statistics as undergraduates. However, it is most often brief, a long time ago, and largely forgotten by the time it is needed. Furthermore, many introductory texts fall short of adequately explaining the underlying concepts of statistics, and often are divorced from the reality of conducting and assessing medical research.

Practical Statistics for Medical Research is a problem-based text for medical researchers, medical students, and others in the medical arena who need to use statistics but have no specialized mathematics background.

The author draws on twenty years of experience as a consulting medical statistician to provide clear explanations to key statistical concepts, with a firm emphasis on practical aspects of designing and analyzing medical research. The text gives special attention to the presentation and interpretation of results and the many real problems that arise in medical research.

Customer Reviews

Another point of view
This book is often recommended to biologists and clinicians undertaking clinical research. Although it does contain pretty much everything you need to know in order to design and analyse a study, it is not the sort of book that is easy to read cover to cover. The language is heavy going and old fashioned.

For complete beginners, I would have to recommend Primer Of Biostatistics by Stanton A Glantz. By using rather zany examples from the planet Mars, the reader does not get bogged down in all the medical terminology, unlike the examples in Altman. And it is a book you can sit down anywhere (on the bus or tube) and continue where you left off.

To summarise: If you are a medical student who needs to pass a test in medical statistics, go for Glantz. If you are starting some research and have no knowledge of medical statistics, go for Glantz. If your budget allows, get Altman for reference (otherwise borrow it from your library, or someone who gave up trying to read it).

Wonderful - practical, easy language, good advice
Altman addressess the questions and difficulties met in every-day practice of medical statistics in a clear, very practical style. Useful by those (eg clinicians) new to statistical analyses, and also to statisticians venturing into an area in which they've not been much before. As a single 'best' book for everyday analyses, this is it!

Excellent
An excellent textbook for non-statisticians undertaking medical research. Only criticims is it is a little thin on multivariate analysis and meta-analysis.