This module is an introduction to statistics, particularly as applied in
oncology and palliative care. The overall aim is to explain why
statistics is important in these fields and to explain some of the basic
concepts of statistics. At the end of the module you should be familiar
with many of the statistical terms and techniques you will encounter when
reading the literature. You should also be able to analyse some of your
own data. The course makes extensive use of the statistical package
Minitab, and through the course you will acquire the skills necessary to start
using this program.
Mode of Study
The
first week of study invites you to read a research paper and to try to decide
where the statistical issues arise. In the second week you will install
Minitab on your PC. Thereafter each week has a similar format.
In each
week there will be one, or occasionally two study documents for you to
read. After reading each document there will be a set of exercises to
do. These will involve the use of Minitab. These are not formally
assessed, they are simply there to help you to consolidate your
knowledge. Learning statistics is not straightforward and you will often
find that you will have to go over the study document several times in order to
complete the exercises successfully. You can check your answers in the
Solutions Sheet which accompanies each set of exercises. However, you are
encouraged to make a thorough attempt before looking at the solutions!
There
are three sets of true/false questions, after week 5, after week 7 and after
week 11. .
There
are two weeks in which no formal work is set.
In the
last week of the course there is a test, in which you need to provide more
extended answers.
Other sources
The
course is intended to be self-contained, in that the study documents cover all
the material you need. However, it is often the case that being able to
read another authors view of a subject can help to elucidate points of
difficulty, or can simply consolidate your understanding.
To this
end, in the study documents, and at other points in the course, references are
given to relevant chapters, sections and pages of the book by Martin Bland, 'An
Introduction to Medical Statistics' (3rd edition), Oxford University Press,
Another
useful book is that by MJ Campbell and D Machin, 'Medical Statistics: a
Commonsense Approach' (3rd edition), Wiley, Chichester, 2000 (ISBN 0 47
198721 2)
A rather different style of book, comprising worked examples, which is a useful
Complement to Bland is:
Bland, Martin and Peacock, Janet, ‘Statistical questions in
evidence-based medicine’, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000 (ISBN
0 19 262992 1).
Week
1: Why do you need statistics in medical
research?
Week
2: Introduction to Minitab
Week
3: Basic descriptive statistics
Week
4: The idea of a population and its parameters
Week
5: Properties of the Normal distribution
Week
6: Samples, estimation and standard
errors
Week
7: Confidence intervals: what they are
& how to find them
Week
8: No formal work this week
Week
9: The idea of a hypothesis test
Week
10: Tests to compare two groups: t-tests
Week
11: Binary data and the c2 test
Week
12: Principle of sample size calculations
Week
13: No formal work this week
Week
14: Survival analysis
Week
15: Test