Basic Statistics

12 INITIAL STEPS

PROBLEMS

1.1

1.2

1.3

1.4

1.5

1.6

1.7

Write out the goals for a public health or medical study that you would like to

do. What type of study will you use?

List two diseases that it would be possible to study with (a) a cross-sectional

survey, (b) a casekontrol study, (c) a prospective panel study, and (d) a clinical

trial.

For one of the diseases chosen in Problem 1.1 for a prospective panel study,

try to create a figure comparable to Figure 1.1 for a typical patient, estimating

actual years between the events.

Which type of study requires (a) a high incidence rate? (b) a high prevalence

proportion? (c) a high level of funding? (d) treatment under control of the

investigator?

What types of diseases have high prevalence proportions relative to their inci-

dence rate?

State why a double-blind study is difficult to accomplish when two surgical

methods are being compared.

What type of study is often done when there is a low incidence rate and little

funding?

REFERENCES

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Moher, D., Schulz, K. F. and Altman, D. [2004]. The CONSORT statement: revised rec-

ommendations for improving the quality of reports of parallel-group randomized trials,

Journal ofthe American Medical Association, 1987-1991.

Mould, R. F. [ 19981. Introductory Medical Statistics, 3rd ed., Bristol, UK: Institute of Physics

Publishing, 242-261.

Piantadosi, S. [2005]. Clinical Trials: A Methodologic Perspective, 2nd ed., Hoboken, NJ:

Wiley.

Pocock, S. J. [1983]. Clinical Trials: A Practical Approach, Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Rothman, K. J. [1986]. Modern Epidemiology, Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 23-34.

Schlesselman, J. J. [1982]. Case-Control Studies, New York: Oxford University Press, 14-38.

Spriet, A,, Dupin-Spriet, T. and Simon, P. [1994]. Methodology of Clinical Drug Trials,

Sutton, A. S., Abrams, K. R., Jones, D. R. and Shelton, T. A. [2002]. Methods for Meta-

Wooding, W. M. [ 19941. Planning Pharmaceutical Clinical Trials, Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

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Analysis, Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.