Biostatistics Fast Help
What is it for?
You need a quick refresher to confirm that you are analyzing your data correctly.What's in it?
Listed below are classic Statistical Short Notes about biostatistics that are built around clinical scenarios that illustrate the technique or statistical tool.See also
- Excellent introductory eBook: Basic & Clinical Biostatistics, 4th Edition.
- The Encyclopedia of Statistical Sciences, an excellent reference source for all things statistical when you want more detail than provided by the short notes below.
- All Lane FAQs on biostatistics.
- All Lane resources on biostatistics, including videorecorded classes.
- Get help from SPCTRM's Biostatistical Services.
| Topic | Title | Authors |
| Correlations | Calculating correlation coefficients with repeated observations. Part 1: Correlation within subjects |
J Martin Bland & Douglas G Altman BMJ 1995;310:446 |
| Correlations | Calculating correlation coefficients with repeated observations. Part 2: Correlation between subjects |
J Martin Bland & Douglas G Altman BMJ 1995;310:633 |
| Correlations | Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence | Douglas G Altman & J Martin Bland BMJ 1995;311:485 |
| Correlations | The intracluster correlation coefficient in cluster randomisation | Sally M Kerry &J Martin Bland BMJ 1998;316:1455-1460 |
| Diagnostic significance | Diagnostic tests. Part 1: sensitivity and specificity |
Douglas G Altman &J Martin Bland BMJ 1994;308:1552 |
| Diagnostic significance | Diagnostic tests. Part 2: predictive values |
Douglas G Altman & J Martin Bland BMJ 1994;309:102 |
| Diagnostic significance | Diagnostic tests. Part 3: receiver operating characteristic plots |
Douglas G Altman & J Martin Bland BMJ 1994;309:188 |
| Diagnostic significance | Diagnostic tests. Part 4: likelihood ratios. |
JJ Deeks & Douglas G Altman BMJ 2004 329:168-169 |
| Measurement error | Measurement error and correlation coefficients | J Martin Bland & Douglas G Altman BMJ 1996;313:41-42 |
| Measurement error | Measurement error proportional to the mean | J Martin Bland & Douglas G Altman BMJ 1996;313:106 |
| Measurement error | Measurement error | J Martin Bland & Douglas G Altman BMJ 1996;313:744 |
| Measurement error | Sample size in cluster randomisation | Sally M Kerry & J Martin Bland BMJ 1998;316:549 |
| Measurement error | Standard deviations and standard errors. | Altman DG, Bland JM. BMJ. 2005 Oct 15;331(7521):903 |
| Measurement error | Missing data | J Martin Bland, Douglas G Altman BMJ. 2007 Feb 24;334(7590):424 |
| Randomization | Trials randomised in clusters | J Martin Bland & Sally M Kerry BMJ 1997;315:600 |
| Randomization | Analysis of a trial randomised in clusters | Sally M Kerry & Martin Bland BMJ 1998;316:54 |
| Randomization | Treatment allocation in controlled trials: why randomise? | Douglas G Altman & J Martin Bland BMJ 1999;318:1209-1209 |
| Randomization | How to randomise | Douglas G Altman & J Martin Bland BMJ 1999;319:703-704 |
| Randomization | Blinding in clinical trials and other studies | Simon J Day &Douglas G Altman BMJ 2000;321:504 |
| Randomization | Matching | J Martin Bland & Douglas G Altman BMJ 1994;309:1128 |
| Regression | Some examples of regression towards the mean J Martin Bland | Douglas G Altman BMJ 1994;309:780 |
| Significance testing | One and two sided tests of significance | J Martin Bland & Douglas G Altman BMJ 1994;309:248 |
| Significance testing | The normal distribution | Douglas G Altman & J Martin Bland BMJ 1995;310:298 |
| Significance testing | Comparing several groups using analysis of variance | Douglas G Altman & J Martin Bland BMJ 1996;312:1472-1473 |
| Significance testing | Analysing controlled trials with baseline and follow up measurements | Andrew J Vickers & Douglas G Altman BMJ 2001;323:1123-1124 |
| Significance testing | Multiple significance tests: the Bonferroni method | J Martin Bland & Douglas G Altman BMJ 1995;310:170 |
| Significance testing | Interaction 1: heterogeneity of effects | Douglas G Altman & John NS Matthews BMJ 1996;313:486 |
| Significance testing | Interaction 2: compare effect sizes not P values | John NS Matthews & Douglas G Altman BMJ 1996;313:808 |
| Significance testing | Interaction 3: How to examine heterogeneity | John NS Matthews & Douglas G Altman BMJ 1996;313:862 |
| Significance testing | Interaction revisited: the difference between two estimates | Douglas G Altman & J Martin Bland BMJ 2003;326:219 |
| Statistical tests | The logrank test | J Martin Bland & Douglas G Altman BMJ 2004 328(7447):1073 |
| Summarization | Quartiles, quintiles, centiles, and other quantiles | Douglas G Altman J Martin Bland BMJ 1994;309:996 |
| Summarization | Presentation of numerical data | J Martin Bland & Douglas G Altman BMJ 1996;312:572 |
| Summarization | Detecting skewness from summary information | Douglas G Altman & J Martin Bland BMJ 1996;313:1200 |
| Summarisation | Generalisation and extrapolation | Douglas G Altman & J Martin Bland BMJ 1998;317:409-410 |
| Survival analysis | Time to event (survival) data | Douglas G Altman & J Martin Bland BMJ 1998;317:468-469 |
| Survival analysis | Survival probabilities (the Kaplan-Meier method) | J Martin Bland, & Douglas G Altman BMJ 1998;317:1572-1580 |
| Transformation | Transforming data | J Martin Bland & Douglas G Altman BMJ 1996;312:770 |
| Transformation | Transformations, means, and confidence intervals | J Martin Bland & Douglas G Altman BMJ 1996;312:1079 |
| Transformation | The use of transformation when comparing two means | J Martin Bland & Douglas G Altman BMJ 1996;312:1153 |
| Understanding statistics | Logarithms | J Martin Bland & Douglas G Altman BMJ 1996;312:700 |
| Understanding statistics | Cronbach's alpha | J Martin Bland & Douglas G Altman BMJ 1997;314:572 |
| Understanding statistics | Units of analysis | Douglas G Altman & J Martin Bland BMJ 1997;314:1874 |
| Understanding statistics | Weighted comparison of means | Martin Bland & Sally M Kerry BMJ 1998;316:129 |
| Understanding statistics | Bayesians and frequentists | J Martin Bland & Douglas G Altman BMJ 1998;317:1151-1160 |
| Understanding statistics | The odds ratio | Douglas G Altman & J Martin Bland BMJ 2000;320:1468 |
| Understanding statistics | Treatment allocation by minimisation | Altman DG, Bland JM. BMJ. 2005 Apr 9;330(7495):843 |
| Understanding statistics | Concealing treatment allocation in randomized trials | Douglas G Altman & Kenneth F Schulz BMJ 2001;323:446-447 |
| What to measure | Validating scales and indexes | J Martin Bland & Douglas G Altman BMJ 2002;324:606-607 |
| What to measure | Variables and parameters | Douglas G Altman & J Martin Bland BMJ 1999;318:1667-1667 |