Biostatistics: A Foundation for Analysis in the Health Sciences (Wiley Series in Probability and Statistics) 
asked by nutshell on November 7, 2006 8:21 AM
A new edition of the bestselling Biostatistics textbook. This classic text takes a more applied and computer-oriented approach to its topical coverage. Like its predecessors, the Eighth Edition stresses intuitive understanding of principles rather than learning by mathematical proof. It provides broad coverage of statistical procedures used in all the health science disciplines. Nearly all the examples and exercises make use of real data from actual research projects and reports from health sciences literature. Where appropriate, Minitab, SPSS and SAS commands and printouts are included as part of the examples and solutions to exercises.
Reviews
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This book is extreamly helpful for academic research. It can be somewhat more technical than most people would need.
reviewed by hooked on November 18, 2006 12:19 PM
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Daniel obviously knows his statistics; but, I wouldnt think that is too helpful for individuals reading or studying from his textbook.
The reasons are numerous, and all these reasons would reduce anyone's chances of solely using this book, or even using it at all.
The textbook is well organized, however Daniel's writing often is pedantic, repetitive (not in the helpful way) and ambiguous at best.
The examples and solutions occassionaly have serious errors in them which affect the overall outcome of the test (A second consideration is that the book is in it's 8th edition!!! therefore such errors are unacceptable for a person such as myself).
An example can be found on page 239 (example 7.3.2). The pooled variance, as calculated by Daniel is approximately off by 100 simply because he didnt give attention to dividing the numerator with the proper pooled D.F of the samples. The chapter ironically was on hypothesis tests, something extremely important to any line of empirically oriented statistics.
In Chapter 8; which is probably the most important chapter in Bistatistics (ANOVAs) he does not mention the relationship between MSW and sample SD. Also, his usage of Summation in formulas often are unnecessarily overcomplicated. Such is not even seen in professional journals.
I did like this textbook regardless of its many shortcomings, its not because I liked the author's style of writing. Its more or less the fact that my lecturer (I assume) used this book heavily in his lectures and so I used it as a supplementary text.
I would suggest, Chap T. Le's Introductory Biostatistics. However he goes too much into nonparametric methods and proportions and doesnt cocentration (to the degree I wanted) on continous data.
More robust and probably cost effect books are :Introductory Statistics for the Life Sciences by Samuels. But the Best book I have ever seen on the subject is "Introductory Biostatistics for the health sciences" By Chernick and Friis. The book is well priced and no portion of this book, I have seen as being useless.
The reasons are numerous, and all these reasons would reduce anyone's chances of solely using this book, or even using it at all.
The textbook is well organized, however Daniel's writing often is pedantic, repetitive (not in the helpful way) and ambiguous at best.
The examples and solutions occassionaly have serious errors in them which affect the overall outcome of the test (A second consideration is that the book is in it's 8th edition!!! therefore such errors are unacceptable for a person such as myself).
An example can be found on page 239 (example 7.3.2). The pooled variance, as calculated by Daniel is approximately off by 100 simply because he didnt give attention to dividing the numerator with the proper pooled D.F of the samples. The chapter ironically was on hypothesis tests, something extremely important to any line of empirically oriented statistics.
In Chapter 8; which is probably the most important chapter in Bistatistics (ANOVAs) he does not mention the relationship between MSW and sample SD. Also, his usage of Summation in formulas often are unnecessarily overcomplicated. Such is not even seen in professional journals.
I did like this textbook regardless of its many shortcomings, its not because I liked the author's style of writing. Its more or less the fact that my lecturer (I assume) used this book heavily in his lectures and so I used it as a supplementary text.
I would suggest, Chap T. Le's Introductory Biostatistics. However he goes too much into nonparametric methods and proportions and doesnt cocentration (to the degree I wanted) on continous data.
More robust and probably cost effect books are :Introductory Statistics for the Life Sciences by Samuels. But the Best book I have ever seen on the subject is "Introductory Biostatistics for the health sciences" By Chernick and Friis. The book is well priced and no portion of this book, I have seen as being useless.
reviewed by bigben on November 21, 2006 8:48 PM
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I'm taking my first biostatistics class in medical school, but the text I am using in class (Rosner) has lost me. I subsequently borrowed Daniel's book from the library (only because it has 7th editions), and I am glad that I picked it! Daniel is a good writer. The book is well organized and laid out. Important concepts are emphased and explained with minimum mathematics involved. The well thought out examples are worth working through as well for clarification of the applications of important concepts. However, as a beginner in statistics, I was lost in the midst of mathematics on certain concepts (given that I have a relatively strong mathematics background) without really understanding the meaning of some very basic terms, like percentile, confidence intervals.
What I do is to read another reference book that explains the very basic concepts in plain English first before reading this text. I am currently using Munro's Statistical Methods for Health Care Research. While both of them cover the same set of concepts, Daniel gives me the mathematical and more advanced explainations compare to Munro.
What I do is to read another reference book that explains the very basic concepts in plain English first before reading this text. I am currently using Munro's Statistical Methods for Health Care Research. While both of them cover the same set of concepts, Daniel gives me the mathematical and more advanced explainations compare to Munro.
reviewed by tacos on November 26, 2006 2:12 PM
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I have used this and other texts by Daniel over the years and I find you can not go wrong with his works. He is a no nonsense author and a very good writer who uses plenty of examples. Get his nonparametric book also.
reviewed by teacher on November 28, 2006 9:35 PM
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The title is very appropriate - this text provides a solid foundation in biostats. I used it for an intro course in grad school, and working through the text was very worthwhile. Previously cloudy concepts are now more clear, and I have a great reference for future use. More in-depth biostats deserves a consultation with a statistician, not a longer text. I agree with other reviewers that there are occasional mistakes (which need to be fixed - this is not even the first edition), but overall I would still highly recommend it.
reviewed by potato on November 29, 2006 5:13 AM