This edition first published 2021
© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Edition History John Wiley & Sons Ltd (4e, 2007)
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by law. Advice on how to obtain permission to reuse material from this title is available at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
The right of Stephen J. Walters, Michael J. Campbell, and David Machin to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with law.
Registered Office(s) John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, USA John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK
Editorial Office 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK
For details of our global editorial offices, customer services, and more information about Wiley products visit us at www.wiley.com.
Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats and by print‐on‐demand. Some content that appears in standard print versions of this book may not be available in other formats.
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty The contents of this work are intended to further general scientific research, understanding, and discussion only and are not intended and should not be relied upon as recommending or promoting scientific method, diagnosis, or treatment by physicians for any particular patient. In view of ongoing research, equipment modifications, changes in governmental regulations, and the constant flow of information relating to the use of medicines, equipment, and devices, the reader is urged to review and evaluate the information provided in the package insert or instructions for each medicine, equipment, or device for, among other things, any changes in the instructions or indication of usage and for added warnings and precautions. While the publisher and authors have used their best efforts in preparing this work, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives, written sales materials or promotional statements for this work. The fact that an organization, website, or product is referred to in this work as a citation and/or potential source of further information does not mean that the publisher and authors endorse the information or services the organization, website, or product may provide or recommendations it may make. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a specialist where appropriate. Further, readers should be aware that websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read. Neither the publisher nor authors shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data
Names: Campbell, Michael J., 1950- author. | Walters, Stephen John, author. | Machin, David, 1939– author.
Title: Medical statistics : a textbook for the health sciences / Stephen J. Walters, Michael J. Campbell, David Machin.
Description: Fifth edition. | Hoboken, NJ : Wiley-Blackwell, 2021. | Michael J. Campbell's name appears first in earlier editions. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020029691 (print) | LCCN 2020029692 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119423645 (paperback) | ISBN 9781119423669 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781119423652 (epub)
Subjects: MESH: Biometry–methods | Research Design | Statistics as Topic
Classification: LCC R853.S7 (print) | LCC R853.S7 (ebook) | NLM WA 950 | DDC 610.72/7–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020029691 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020029692
Cover Design: Wiley
Cover Images: Doctor taking patients blood pressure in examination room, © Hero Images/Getty Images; Cardiogram of heart on paper, © Shevchuk Boris/ Getty Images; Crowded Istiklal street in Istanbul, © Todor Tsvetkov/Getty Images
Preface
It is more than 13 years since the last edition of Medical Statistics: A Textbook for the Health Sciences was published and it has proven to be popular. This preface outlines the major changes and updates made since that edition was published.
All the chapters have been revised and updated. With simpler statistical methods it is useful to be able to carry out an analysis for oneself, to help fully understand its usefulness and its limitations. However, with the advent of public domain software for the analysis of data, ever more complex statistical methods are available to the researcher. These advanced methods have been incorporated in many elementary medical statistics syllabuses. A student today needs to understand the application and limitations of these methods to be able to fully evaluate articles in many main stream medical journals. To this end we have introduced new chapters on diagnostic tests, linear modelling, logistic modelling and a further one covering briefly more advanced topics such as random effects modelling and Poisson regression. At all times the emphasis is on understanding why such techniques should be used, their limitations, and how the results of such analyses are to be displayed.
Since the last edition, medical statistics has faced a number of challenges. One of the main ones is the problem of replication. A study is published, with a significant P‐value, but another study addressing the same research question fails to replicate this result. This can often cause consternation amongst among readers of research. We discuss this issue in Chapter 18 on Meta‐analysis. A related issue is the mis‐use of P‐values. This has been a major discussion point in the research community and we include this in our coverage of P‐values in Chapter 6.
We have found that quizzes within lectures are a useful method of consolidating a student's understanding of a topic. Each chapter contains a new set of multiple‐choice questions that can be used to test knowledge for the individual reader, or can be used by a lecturer, perhaps with a polling device to see how many students have understood a particular point.
Stephen J. WaltersMichael J. CampbellDavid MachinJuly 2020
1 Uses and Abuses of Medical Statistics
3 1.3 Statistics is About Common Sense and Good Design
4 1.4 How a Statistician Can Help
Summary