MONASH UNIVERSITY FACULTY HANDBOOKS
Medicine Handbook 1996
Published by Monash University
Clayton, Victoria 3168, Australia
Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996
Introduction
to statistics and epidemiology
Dr M Abramson (Social and Preventive Medicine)
Objectives At the completion of this unit, students will be able to (1)
interpret statistical information in medical journal articles; (2) state the
difference between descriptive and analytical epidemiology; (3) state the
strengths and weaknesses of different epidemiological study designs; (4)
conduct a small clinical trial; (5) perform simple statistical analyses with
Minitab.
Synopsis Demography, descriptive and analytical epidemiology,
epidemiological study designs, diagnostic and screening tests and statistical
applications. The tutorials include an introduction to Minitab, conducting a
small clinical trial, analysis of a case control study and critical appraisal
of a cohort study from the medical literature. There is also a conjoint
exercise with `Clinical and communication skills' which involves analysing a
cross-sectional study of blood pressure.
Assessment Mid-year examination (1 hour): 80% + Presentations of
tutorial group projects: 15% + Tutorial exercise: 5%
Prescribed texts
- Minitab release 7 Quick reference card
- Greenberg R S and others Medical epidemiology Prentice-Hall,
1993
Reference books
- Beaglehole R and others Basic epidemiology World Health
Organisation, 1993
- Bland M An introduction to medical statistics OUP, 1987
- Last J M A dictionary of epidemiology 2nd edn, OUP, 1988
- Norman G R and Streiner D L Biostatistics: The bare essentials
Mosby, 1994
- Ryan T A and others Minitab reference manual Minitab Inc, 1986
- Sackett D L and others Clinical epidemiology: A basic science for
clinical medicine 2nd edn, Little Brown , 1991
- Streiner D L and others PDQ epidemiology Becker, 1989
| Undergraduate Subjects
| Medicine Handbook
| Monash handbooks
| Monash University