Applied medical statistics using SAS

摘要

'Quintessentially, statistics is about solving problems: data are collected and statistical analyses are used to provide answers' (p. 41); with SAS, I would add. I believe this phrase catches the meaning of the book by Der and Everitt, throughout which the authors have chosen to depict an amalgamation of the applied facet of statistics with SAS along with theory, creating an enjoyable read. Overall, I think the authors have fulfilled their aim of giving a disquisition on medical statistics with SAS. This book has 18 chapters which cover a full range of topics in medical statistics. It starts with introducing basic commands in SAS and providing examples (DATA and PROC), moves on to the issue of measurement in medicine, gives an elaboration on clinical trials and epidemiology (essential in medical statistics) and then moves on to statistical methods. I enjoyed these initial chapters, because the authors provide a taste of history and epistemology in this field which can become too theoretical at some points. Interestingly, the methods section of the book starts with meta-analysis which is not the first statistical method a researcher in medicine or health sciences would use. Possibly this choice is justified because meta-analysis is an increasingly popular manuscript type for journals and many researchers are attempting this. Then it moves on to describe the analysis of variance and covariance, which is basically the statistical methodology to explore differences between groups with respect to certain variables.