STAT601 – Statistical Methods for Health Care Research
Summer Session 2017

This handout covers basic information about the course. It contains the tentative course syllabus, information about my website, and the D2L website. It also briefly discusses technology for hosting online meetings.

COURSE INFORMATION

Instructor: Brant Deppa, Ph.D.
Office: 311 Gildemeister Hall (Winona Campus)
Office Hours:It is best to contact me via e-mail and arrange a time we could meet using Breeze, Skype, or a chat on the phone.

Phone: 507-457-5457
e-mail:

Website: course1.winona.edu/bdeppa  Courses STAT 601
COURSE DESCRIPTION

We will review most of the common statistical methods, research designs, and data procedures used in health care research. With the emphasis in health care today on evidence-based practice, it is more important than ever for health care professionals to understand essential information about measurement, sampling, and statistical analysis techniques.The topics covered in this course represent basic tools most commonly employed in the published literature in the health sciences.

A second important component of the course will be conducting statistical analyses yourself using a statistical software package. The package we will be using is SAS-JMP 13 Pro because it is my experience that it is by the far the easiest statistical software to use. It also is very visual which I believe makes it easier to “see” the important features of data. On most assignments you will be using actual data from published studies to conduct appropriate statistical analyses using JMP and then interpret the results from them to answer research questions of interest.

Required Materials:
1) JMP 13 Pro which you can download for free. You should all receive an e-mail from Steve Heftman which contains a link you can use to download JMP 13 Pro. I will send out an e-mail when I knoe you should have received it. If you do not receive the e-mail with link to download JMP 13, please contact Steve Heftman ().

2) A computer should also be capable of viewing lecture materials and running JMP 13.
If you are having troubles with the lecture video (typically problems with audio) try
refreshing your browser a few times. I use Google Chrome generally, but Mozilla
Firefox or Safari should probably work fine as well. Students tend to have the most
problems with Internet Explorer. I have never had a student who ultimately was
unable to view the lecture materials.

Optional/References (in order of importance):

  • Basic Biostatistics: Statistics for Public Health Practice, Jones and Bartlett, by B. Burt Gerstman
  • Biostatistics: A Foundation for the Health Science (9th or 10thed.),
    Wiley Publishingby Wayne Daniels

.

These texts are not required and do not follow either one per se, but the content
covered in the course is found in both of these texts.

Evaluation:

Course assignments & projects100%

Course grades will be assigned as follows:
A = 92%-100%, B = 82%-91.99%, C = 72%-81.99%, D = 62% - 71.99%, F = below 62%

Assignments will consist of:

  • Viewing all relevant lectures and software demonstrations.
  • Completion of assigned problems. Some of these problems will consist ofanswering questions pertaining to a research paper related to the current course topics. The other problems will require conducting statistical analyses in JMP using real data and answering questions related to the results. All relevant computer output should be incorporated into your write-ups.This is easily done by copying output and pasting it into Word.
  • You are allowed/encouraged to work in groups of two (or possibly three) on the assignments. You need only submit ONE copy of the assignment but make sure that both group members names are at the top of the assignment! If you prefer to work alone, you are certainly welcome to.

General Course Outline (BB = Gerstman, D = Daniel,)

1. Organizing and Displaying Data
(D = Ch. 1 – 2, BB = Ch. 1)
2. Types of Studies and Sampling
(D = Ch. 2, BB = Ch.2)
3.Descriptive Statistics for Numeric Variables
(D = Ch. 2, BB = Ch. 3 & 4)

4. Examining Relationships Between Two Variables

(D = no specific chapter, BB = no specific chapter)
5. Probabilities, Baye's Rule, RR and OR
(BB = Ch. 5, 17 & 18)
6. Key Principles of Statistical Inference
a) probability and its role in decision making
(BB = Ch. 8)
b) normal distribution, z-scores

(D = Ch. 4, BB = Ch. 7)
c) hypothesis testing
(D = Ch. 7, BB = Ch. 9)
d) confidence intervals
(D = Ch. 6, BB = Ch. 10)
e) effect size (practical vs. statistical significance)
f) sample size, power, and precision
(D = Ch. 7, BB = Ch. 11 & 12)
7. Single Population Inference
a) inference for a population mean(D = Ch. 7, BB = Ch. 11)
b) inference for a population proportion (D = Ch. 7, BB = Ch. 16)
8. Comparing Two Populations with a Numeric Response
a) independent samples
(D = Ch. 6 - 7, BB = Ch. 12)
b) dependent samples
(D = Ch. 6 - 7, BB = Ch.11)
9. Comparing Two Populations with a Nominal/Categorical Response
a) independent samples (z-test, Fisher's Exact test, Chi-square test)
(D = Ch. 7 & 12, BB = Ch.16 - 18)
b) dependent samples (McNemar's test)
(BB = Ch.18)
10. Comparing Several Population Means
a) one-way ANOVA
(D = Ch. 8, BB = Ch. 13)
b) block designs/repeated measures design
(D = Ch. 8)
c) post hoc analyses
(D = Ch. 8, BB = Ch. 13)
11. Nonparametric Tests for a Numeric Response
a) comparing two or more populations with independent samples
(D = Ch. 13, BB = Ch. 13)
b) comparing two populations with dependent samples
(D = Ch. 13)

12. Analysis of Categorical Data
(D = Ch. 12, BB = Ch. 18, 19)
13. Correlation
(D = Ch. 9, BB = Ch. 14)
14. Simple Linear Regression
(D = Ch. 9, BB = Ch. 14, 11)

Content on the my course1website:
 Courses STAT 601

  • Narrated Powerpoints
  • Non-narrated (regular) Powerpoints
  • Course assignments and supporting materials
  • Live demo tutorials on how to use the statistical software package JMP 13 Pro and organized by statistical topic.
  • Datasets which you will use to conduct your own statistical analyses
    in JMP as part of course assignments.
  • Links to assignment walk-throughs are located below the link to each assignment. These walk-throughs are hosted on MNSCU’s Mediaspace and are in .MP4 format.

Content on D2L:

  • Research articles for assignmentsthe only way to access these as they are copyrighted.
  • Dropboxes for turning in assignments
  • Assignment grades
  • Discussion boards for each assignment

BREEZE/ADOBE CONNECT MEETINGS

If needed we can have virtual office hours using Adobe Connect or Skype. The link to Adobe Connect for the course is given below.

This technology allows me to easily create a brief meeting at the spur of the moment. Therefore if a group of students want to arrange a short meeting online you can shoot me an e-mail and we can possibly arrange a time.

COURSE WEBSITE –  Courses STAT 601

D2L Course Site -

Research article links are found under the Content section of D2L.

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