Chapter 1 - Overview

Question 1

Statistics

Answer 1

a science whereby inferences are made about specific random phenomena on the basis of relatively limited sample material

Question 2

Mathematical statistics

Answer 2

concerns the development of new methods of statistical inference and requires detailed knowledge of abstract mathematics for its implementation

Question 3

Applied statistics

Answer 3

involves application of mathematical statistical methods to specific subject areas such as economics, psychology, and public health

Question 4

Biostatistics

Answer 4

• a branch of applied statistics that applies statistical methods to medical and biological problems
• standard statistical methods may not necessarily be applicable for all studies

Question 5

Steps in data analysis

Answer 5

• data collection
• data entry
• data editing
• data analysis
• publication of manuscript

Question 6

Descriptive statistics

Answer 6

• descriptive material can be numeric or graphic
• if numeric, data can be tabulated or presented as a frequency distribution
• if graphic, data can be summarized pictorially
• choice of numeric or graphic descriptive statistics is dependent on data type

Question 7

Continuous data

Answer 7

• where there are infinite number of possible values (eg. blood pressure measurements)
• means and standard deviations may be used

Question 8

Discrete data

Answer 8

• where there are only a few possible values (eg. sex)

- percentages of people for each value may be considered

Question 9

Inferential statistics

Answer 9

• inferring the characteristics of a population from a sample is the central concern of statistical inference
• probability model = tells us how likely it is to obtain a difference between the two methods if there were no real difference between the methods
• a small enough probability would indicate that the difference between the two methods is real

Question 10

Statistical package

Answer 10

• a statistical package is a collection of statistical programs that describe data and perform various statistical tests on the data
• a few statistical packages include R, SAS, SPSS, Stata, MINITAB, and Excel

Question 11

R

Answer 11

• R is a very powerful, advanced, modern, and free open-source statistical and computational and graphical environment