DAVID BOWERS, Leeds Institute of Health Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

Preface to the 4th Edition xix

Preface to the 3rd Edition xxi

Preface to the 2nd Edition xxiii

Preface to the 1st Edition xxv

Introduction xxvii

I Some Fundamental Stuff 1

1 First things first - the nature of data 3

II Descriptive Statistics 15

2 Describing data with tables 17

3 Every picture tells a story - describing data with charts 31

4 Describing data from its shape 51

5 Measures of location - Numbers R Us 62

6 Measures of spread - Numbers R Us - (again) 75

7 Incidence, prevalence, and standardisation 92

III The Confounding Problem 111

8 Confounding - like the poor, (nearly) always with us 113

IV Design and Data 125

9 Research design - Part I: Observational study designs 127

10 Research design - Part II: Getting stuck in - experimental studies 146

11 Getting the participants for your study: ways of sampling 156

V Chance Would Be a Fine Thing 165

12 The idea of probability 167

13 Risk and odds 175

VI The Informed Guess - An Introduction to Confidence Intervals 191

14 Estimating the value of a single population parameter - the idea of confidence intervals 193

15 Using confidence intervals to compare two population parameters 206

16 Confidence intervals for the ratio of two population parameters 224

VII Putting it to the Test 235

17 Testing hypotheses about the difference between two population parameters 237

18 The Chi-squared (chi²) test - what, why, and how? 261

19 Testing hypotheses about the ratio of two population parameters 276

VIII Becoming Acquainted 283

20 Measuring the association between two variables 285

21 Measuring agreement 298

IX Getting into a Relationship 307

22 Straight line models: linear regression 309

23 Curvy models: logistic regression 334

24 Counting models: Poisson regression 349

X Four More Chapters 363

25 Measuring survival 365

26 Systematic review and meta-analysis 380

27 Diagnostic testing 393

28 Missing data 400

Appendix: Table of random numbers 414

References 415

Solutions to exercises 424

Index 457