intro to biostats lec Flashcards
a branch of ststistics that applies statistical methods to a wide range of topics in science (ex. Biology, Medicine, Public Health)
Biostatistics
a fundamental discipline at the core of modern health data science, and underpins most ket public health research disciplines such as epidemiology and health services research
Biostatistics
he study of factors that dedtermine the occurrence and distribution of a disease in a population
Epidemiology
two types of epidemiology
o Classical Epidemiology
studies the distribution and determinants of disease in a population
Clinical Epidemiology
application of princiles of epidemiology to clinical medicine
o one of the most important aspects of a research is defining the subject
o anyone or anything that is the focal point of the study where data and information is sourced from
subject
o the totality of the group of subjects
o the group of individuals/ites which consist of all possible subjects of interest
population
defining the population is one of the most critical first steps in research T/F
T
a representative sybset of a population o a smaller set (or a subset) of the
population
sample
o a representative sample is a subset that provides an accurate picture of the whole population
o the data collcted from a sample may not ba 1:1 to the data collected from the population but is very similar to one anoher
sample
a process used in statistical analysis in which a predetermined number of observations are taken from a larger population
Sampling
if only certain members of the population are chosen _______, this can be misinterpreted and be called a biased sample
tavoid this, _____ is eacted to esure lack of bias
systematically; random sampling
o a list of the population required by each type of random sample
o a list of subjects from the population which is often assigned a unique number
Sampling Frame
Three Primary Types of Random Sampling
simple, stratified, systematic
PRO and COn of simple
PRO: each subject in the population has the same chance of being selected
CON: may not be reflective of the true population; may also be difficult to conduct in large sample sizes
eften done through a random number generator
simple
a subset of a statistical population in which each member of the subset has an equal probability of being chosen and is meant to be an unbiased representation of a group
simple
PRO and CON of stratified/ cluster
PRO: more representative of the population due to the stratification – making it less biased
CON: often involves more work in the beginning of the process of segementing the population into different subgroups or strata
a method of sampling that involved the division of a population into smaller subgroups known as ____
strata
PRO and CON of systematic
PRO: easy to conduct once the sampling frame is ordered and a number(s) is selected
CON: prone to bias, especially if the samplng frame is unarranged or there is a similar characteristic for subjects every sth order
in systemic, a random starting point will also be selected which starts the ______
chain of intervals/systematic selection
a method for selecting a sample from a population in a _____manner, so as to minimize a sampling error
systemic; randomized
Types of Variables
categorical, count, continuous
variables whose potential measures
are limited to a known certain set of values
o only a limited set of values are possible
o pre-assignedvalues
categorical
categorical is also known as
o also known as Discrete Variables
Types of Categorical Variables
ordinal, nominal and dichotomous
o variablesthatcanonlytakeon positive, whole value numbers and thus are considered discrete values
o in-between numbers do not count o can be counted
count
variablesthathaveonlynumerical values and have no “natural gaps” between numbers
continuous
variables that are measured instead of counted and are best analyzed by multiplying, dividing, adding, or subtracting the values
continuous
