copyright (c) li zhu 20031 biostatistics and its role in public health li zhu, phd assistant...
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copyright (c) Li Zhu 2003 1
Biostatistics and Its Role Biostatistics and Its Role in Public in Public
HealthHealth
Li Zhu, PhD
Assistant Professor of Biostatistics
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
School of Rural Public Health
Texas A&M University System Health Science Center
copyright (c) Li Zhu 2003 2
Topics
• What is Biostatistics?
• What is Statistics?
• Role of Biostatisticians
• Biostatistics in Public Health Research
• Employment Opportunity
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1. What is Biostatistics
Biostatistics is the development and application of statistics to research in health-related fields.
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2. What is Statistics?
• In short, analysis of data (all stages)
• Common perceptions of statistics:
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2. What is Statistics?
• In short, analysis of data (all stages)
• Common perceptions of statistics: numbers, tables, figures, polls, rates, etc.
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2. What is Statistics?
• In short, analysis of data (all stages)
• Common perceptions of statistics: numbers, tables, figures, polls, rates, etc.
• These are “descriptions of the world”
• More than “description”
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2.1 What is Statistics? An Example
• Polio Vaccine: In the 1950’s polio was a serious disease that affected countless people (mostly children)
• In 1954, 401,974 children vaccinated 201,229 with a trial vaccine and 200,745 with a placebo There were a total of Polio cases: for placebo versus for vaccine
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2.1 What is Statistics? An Example
• Polio Vaccine: In the 1950’s polio was a serious disease that affected countless people (mostly children)
• In 1954, 401,974 children vaccinated 201,229 with a trial vaccine and 200,745 with a placebo There were a total of 143 Polio cases: 110 for placebo
versus 33 for vaccine
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2.1 What is Statistics? An Example
There were a total of 143 Polio cases:
110 for placebo versus 33 for vaccine• What does this mean?
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2.1 What is Statistics? An Example
There were a total of 143 Polio cases:
110 for placebo versus 33 for vaccine• What does this mean? • How did you get the 400 000 children?
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2.1 What is Statistics? An Example
There were a total of 143 Polio cases:
110 for placebo versus 33 for vaccine• What does this mean? • How did you get the 400 000 children?• How did you divide them into two groups?
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2.1 What is Statistics? An Example
There were a total of 143 Polio cases:
110 for placebo versus 33 for vaccine• What does this mean? • How did you get the 400 000 children?• How did you divide them into two groups?• Suppose you could repeat the experiment, how
likely you would make the same conclusion?
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2.1 What is Statistics? An Example
There were a total of 143 Polio cases:
110 for placebo versus 33 for vaccine• What does this mean? • How did you get the 400 000 children?• How did you divide them into two groups?• Suppose you could repeat the experiment, how
likely you would make the same conclusion?• How much confidence do you have to detect
the difference between the two groups?
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2.2 What is Statistics? Another Example
National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey:
As saturated fat in diet increases, what do you expect to happen to risk of breast cancer 10 years later?
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3. Role of Biostatisticians
Formulate scientific questions to be answered.
Design an experiment which efficiently gets at questions to be answered.
Collect Data
Screen data for obvious blunders
Analyze and interpret data
Graphs
Numerical summaries
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4. Biostatistics in Public Health Research
• Methodological research:
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4. Biostatistics in Public Health Research
• Methodological research: new statistical techniques
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4. Biostatistics in Public Health Research
• Methodological research: new statistical techniques
high speed of computing
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4. Biostatistics in Public Health Research
• Methodological research: new statistical techniques
high speed of computing
geographical patterns of disease
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4. Biostatistics in Public Health Research
• Methodological research: new statistical techniques
high speed of computing
geographical patterns of disease
clinical trials
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4. Biostatistics in Public Health Research
• Methodological research: new statistical techniques high speed of computing geographical patterns of disease clinical trials longitudinal analysis data analysis in epidemiology
studies
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4. Biostatistics in Public Health Research
• Collaborative research:
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4. Biostatistics in Public Health Research
• Collaborative research: What is the objective of the research? What is the main hypothesis? What is the target population? How to draw a representative sample? How many people to sample? How to take measurements? ……
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5. Employment Opportunity
• Government: Federal, State, Local
• Industry: Biotechonology
Pharmaceutical companies
Software development
• Academia: University research groups
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6. Societies for Biostatisticians
• International Biometric Society
www.enar.org
• American Statistical Association
www.amstat.org
• American Public Health Association
www.apha.org