Biostatistics: A Foundation for Analysis in the Health Sciences, 10th edition

Book Preface

This 10th edition of Biostatistics: A Foundation for Analysis in the Health Sciences was prepared with the objective of appealing to a wide audience. Previous editions of the book have been used by the authors and their colleagues in a variety of contexts. For undergraduates, this edition should provide an introduction to statistical concepts for students in the biosciences, health sciences, and for mathematics majors desiring exposure to applied statistical concepts. Like its predecessors, this edition is designed to meet the needs of beginning graduate students in various fields such as nursing, applied sciences, and public health who are seeking a strong foundation in quantitative methods. For professionals already working in the health field, this edition can serve as a useful desk reference. The breadth of coverage provided in this text, along with the hundreds of practical exercises, allow instructors extensive flexibility in designing courses at many levels. To that end, we offer below some ideas on topical coverage that we have found to be useful in the classroom setting.

Like the previous editions of this book, this edition requires few mathematical prerequisites beyond a solid proficiency in college algebra. We have maintained an emphasis on practical and intuitive understanding of principles rather than on abstract concepts that underlie some methods, and that require greater mathematical sophistication. With that in mind, we have maintained a reliance on problem sets and examples taken directly from the health sciences literature instead of contrived examples.We believe that this makes the text more interesting for students, and more practical for practicing health professionals who reference the text while performing their work duties.

For most of the examples and statistical techniques covered in this edition, we discuss the use of computer software for calculations. Experience has informed our decision to include example printouts from a variety of statistical software in this edition (e.g., MINITAB, SAS, SPSS, and R). We feel that the inclusion of examples from these particular packages, which are generally the most commonly utilized by practitioners, provides a rich presentation of the material and allows the student the opportunity to appreciate the various technologies used by practicing statisticians.