CLRE 254 – Biostatistics II

CREST/MAS

Spring 2014

Course Instructor: Florin Vaida, PhD

Teaching Assistant: Jane Qianqian Deng

Textbooks:

  1. Dawson and Trapp: Basic and Clinical Biostatistics, 4th edition. Lange Medical Books, 2004. Web:
  2. Landau and Everitt: A Handbook of Statistical Analyses using SPSS, Chapman&Hall/CRC, 2004. (Available on Blackboard and Amazon.com)
  3. Instructor’s notes

Course Software:

IBM SPSS Statistics, Grad Pack, Version 22. Earlier versions can be used, at student’s risk. The students should procure and install the program and have it available at all classes, and for homework

Course Objectives:

  1. Develop a conceptual understanding of common statistical methods appropriate for biomedical data, including linear regression, logistic regression, and survival analysis methods. Issues of model building and model selection will be discussed extensively.
  2. Develop the ability to read critically and understand the aspects of study design and statistical analysis from the scientific biomedical literature.
  3. Develop facility with examining and analyzing biomedical datasets using appropriate statistical methods, in SPSS.

Teaching Format:

Two 50-minute sessions. Case studies will be introduced and discussed for each key statistical method. We will also conduct interactive data analysis sessions using SPSS. Students will work in small groups (2-3 students) and individually.

Homework:

  1. Weekly assignments, to be submitted through Blackboard.
  2. Homework is due on Thursday the following week. Late homework is not acceptable.
  3. The only acceptable format is .pdf. Do not submit raw SPSS output.
  4. One homework submission for a group of two students. Students are responsible of finding their own group partner (e.g., ask the colleague to your right). Until groups are formed, homework may be submitted individually (homework 1 and 2 only). For homework 3 or later groups may only be changed with the instructor’s approval.

Final Exam:

  1. In-class, open-book, written 1h, 50min exam, last week of class. The exam will involve data analysis in SPSS, and/or hand calculations.
  2. A make-up exam date will be set up for students with extenuating circumstances. These should make arrangements with the instructor at least one month in advance. Approving the make-up exam is at the latitude of the instructor.

Attendance Policy:

The general CREST attendance policy applies, no more than 3 missed sessions are allowed. You have to be present in both halves of the class.

Course Grade:

The course grade will have three components:

  1. 30%Homework
  2. 10%Weekly submission of lecture evaluation on-line
  3. 60%Final exam

Time Commitment:

Expect to spend 4-6 hours a week outside of class.

Timeline and Syllabus:

Lect / Date / Topic / Reading / Assignment
L1 / 3-Apr / Correlation and Simple Linear Regression / DT Ch8
L2 / 10-Apr / Simple Linear Regression / DT Ch8, LE Ch2 / Hw1 due
L3 / 17-Apr / Multiple Linear Regression / DT Ch10 / Hw2 due
L4 / 24-Apr / Model Building in Regression / DT Ch10, LE Ch4 / Hw3 due
L5 / 1-May / Logistic Regression / DT Ch10 / Hw4 due
L6 / 8-May / Logistic Regression / DT Ch10, LE Ch9 / Hw5 due
L7 / 15-May / Logistic Regression: Model Building / DT Ch10, LE Ch9 / Hw6 due
L8 / 22-May / Survival Analysis / DT Ch9, LE Ch10 / Hw7 due
L9 / 29-May / Survival Analysis – Cox Regression / DT Ch9 / Hw8 due
L10 / 5-Jun / Recapitulation / Hw9 due
Final / 12-Jun / Final Exam

Additional Resources:

  1. Vittinghoff E, Glidden D, Shiboski S, McCulloch C: Regression Methods in Biostatistics, 2nd Ed. Springer, 2012. An excellent in-depth discussion of the methods used in Biostatistics II. The software used is Stata. Extensive treatment of model building, model selection, confounding, and mediation.
  2. S Landau and BS Everitt, “A Handbook of Statistical Analyses using SPSS”, Chapman & Hall/CRC, 2004. 350 pages. A succinct presentation of the statistical methods (e.g., ANOVA, linear regression), with several complete SPSS analyses each. It’s using a very old version of SPSS.
  3. A Field, “Discovering Statistics Using SPSS (and Sex and Drugs and Rock’n Roll)”, 3rd Ed., 2009. 800 pages. The methods and SPSS analyses are discussed in detail, with a jocular tone, yet scientifically rigorous. “Statistics With SPSS for Dummies”, but for intelligent people. Excellent!