Customer Reviews

Basic & Clinical Biostatistics: Fourth Edition

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A hard plus if your looking for pregrad. introductory clinical biostatistics. However I agree with other reviews that the layout or format could be arranged more powerfully, and the mechanics explained with more and better examples with a little more detail. Some of the examples in the book are excellent. I, especially, liked the Methods for Analyzing Survival. I disliked the explanations on statististical power as well as calculating sample populations necessary (n=?)to obtain clinical significance. This book is a good bone to start knawing on, however, the meat is found in other supplemental texts; therefore, reference footnotes are needed which- nowadays- should include, reference books, journals and webpages.

... is a quote attributed to Donald Knuth. So this book is very weak on rigor and precision, is full of shortcuts -- just look at the definition of Probability. However this could be an advantage for students who have a very hard time grasping the subject. I would definitely not use it as a main textbook but would recommend it to weaker students.

Its obvious from reading the first few chapters that the authors lack a basic understanding of the subject. For example they talk of Odds Ratio as if it was same as Relative Risk. The good thing is that they cover everything - you only have to be careful while reading it. The errata in the book is pretty obvious but the authors seem to have no time or inclination to update the website of this book.