Medical Statistics at a Glance Workbook At a Glance Series

This comprehensive workbook contains a variety of self-assessment methods that allow readers to test their statistical knowledge, put it into practice, and apply it in a medical context, while also providing guidance when critically appraising published literature. It is designed to support the best-selling third edition of Medical Statistics at a Glance, to which it is fully cross-referenced, but may be used independently of it.

Ideal for medical students, junior doctors, researchers and anyone working in the biomedical and pharmaceutical disciplines who wants to feel more confident in basic medical statistics, the title includes:

• Over 80 MCQs, each testing knowledge of a single statistical concept or aspect of study interpretation
• 29 structured questions  to explore in greater depth several statistical techniques or principles, including the choice of appropriate statistical analyses and the interpretation of study findings
• Templates for the appraisal of clinical trials and observational studies, plus full appraisals of two published papers to demonstrate the use of these templates in practice
• Detailed step-by-step analyses of two substantial data sets (also available at www.medstatsaag.com) to demonstrate the application of statistical procedures to real-life research

Medical Statistics at a Glance Workbook is the ideal resource to test statistical knowledge and improve analytical and interpretational skills.

Additional resources are available at www.medstatsaag.com, including:

• Excel datasets to accompany the data analysis section
• Downloadable PDFs of two templates for critical appraisal
• Links to online further reading
• Supplementary MCQs

Introduction 6

Part 1: Multiple-choice questions 8

Handling data 8

Sampling and estimation 10

Study design 11

Hypothesis testing 13

Basic techniques for analysing data 13

Additional techniques 20

Part 2: Structured questions 24

Part 3: Critical appraisal 44

Randomised controlled trial: template 44

Randomised controlled trial: Paper 1 46

Observational study: template 51

Observational study: Paper 2 53

Part 4: Data analysis 61

Dataset 1 analysed by Stata v11 (StataCorp LP, Texas, USA) 61

Dataset 2 analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics v20 70

Part 5: Solutions 76

Solutions to multiple-choice questions 76

Model answers for structured questions 93

Randomised controlled trial: critical appraisal of Paper 1 109

Observational study: critical appraisal of Paper 2 113

Appendices 117

Appendix I: list of multiple-choice questions with relevant chapter numbers from Medical Statistics at a Glance (3rd edn) and associated topics 117

Appendix II: list of structured questions with relevant chapter numbers from Medical Statistics at a Glance (3rd edn) and associated topics 119

Appendix III: chapter numbers from Medical Statistics at a Glance (3rd edn) with relevant multiple-choice questions and structured questions 120

Aviva Petrie is Head of Biostatistics Unit and Senior Lecturer, Eastman Dental Institute, University College London; Honorary Lecturer in Medical Statistics, Medical Statistics Unit, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Caroline Sabin is Professor of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology, Research Department of Infection and Population Health, Division of Population Health, University College London, Royal Free Campus