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Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Biostatistics

Overview of Biostatistics in Health Sciences
Biostatistics involves applying statistical concepts to health-related fields such as public health and epidemiology, often with human subjects. This …
Introduction to Epidemiology
Epidemiology studies the patterns, distributions, and factors determining diseases and health conditions in a target population. Its methodology varies …
Prevalence and Incidence
In epidemiology, prevalence refers to the probability of people being affected by a disease in a target population. Conversely, incidence is the …
Sensitivity, Specificity, and Predicted Value
In health sciences, sensitivity refers to the probability that a diagnostic test shows a positive result when the disease is present. On the other hand, …
Receiver Operating Characteristic Plot
When assessing a diagnostic tool or test for a particular illness, it's crucial to weigh the significance of both sensitivity and specificity. A …
Study Designs in Epidemiology
Consider an example of testing calcium's effect on a woman's bone weight. In an ideal study design, the same woman would be observed in two …
Response Surface Methodology
Response Surface Methodology, or RSM, is a statistical technique that analyzes several input variables or factors potentially influencing a response …
Criteria for Causality: Bradford Hill Criteria – II
The Bradford Hill criteria for causality include biological gradient, plausibility, coherence, experiment, and analogy. The biological gradient, or …
Relative Risk
Relative risk, or risk ratio, is the ratio of the probability of a disease occurring in the exposed group to the probability in the unexposed or control …
Odds Ratio
The odds ratio, or cross-product ratio, is the ratio of the odds that a disease occurs upon exposure to a risk factor to the odds that the same disease …
Causality in Epidemiology
Causality, or causation, is fundamentally different from a correlation. Consider a hypothetical correlation between the number of hospitals in a region …
Confounding in Epidemiological Studies
Confounding refers to the distortion of the estimated association between an exposure and an outcome due to the influence of a third variable, known as a …
Strategies for Assessing and Addressing Confounding
Confounding affects conclusions about the associations between exposures and outcomes. But, it can be addressed during both the design and analysis …
Criteria for Causality: Bradford Hill Criteria – I
Sir Austin Bradford Hill suggested nine criteria for causality, out of which strength, consistency, specificity, and temporality are explained here. The …
Bias in Epidemiological Studies
A bias is a systematic tendency of a quantity's estimate or expected value to be skewed or far from the true value. For example, a thermometer …
Statistical Methods for Analyzing Epidemiological Data
Various statistical techniques are used to analyze epidemiological data and guide appropriate public health interventions. Consider a study on the …
Steps in Outbreak Investigation
An outbreak occurs when disease cases unexpectedly exceed normal levels in a specific area and timeframe, such as when multiple people contract a similar …
Principles of Disease Surveillance
Disease surveillance involves systematic data collection and analysis, which is essential for public health management and disease prevention. …
Longitudinal Studies
Longitudinal studies are research designs involving repeated observation of the same subjects, capturing changes and developments over time. These studies …
Detection of Foodborne Bacterial Pathogens from Individual Filth Flies
There is unanimous consensus that insects are important vectors of foodborne pathogens. However, linking insects as vectors of the pathogen causing a …
Assessment of Child Anthropometry in a Large Epidemiologic Study
A high proportion of children have overweight and obesity in the United States and other countries. Accurate assessment of anthropometry is essential to …
Heuristic Mining of Hierarchical Genotypes and Accessory Genome Loci in Bacterial Populations
Routine and systematic use of bacterial whole-genome sequencing (WGS) is enhancing the accuracy and resolution of epidemiological investigations carried …