This chapter discusses several topics, from why statistics is important in anthropological research to statistical notation. The first section (statistics and scientific enquiry) defines basic scientific terms and explains the role of statistics in anthropological research. The second section (basic definitions) reviews the vocabulary we need for the rest of the book. The third section (statist...

Most health professionals are resistant to statistics. There is nothing inconsistent about it: if they liked Mathematics as a profession, they would have chosen a career in the exact sciences. Clinical dentists are not different: most of them prefer to avoid greater proximity to, and as a consequence , understanding of statistics. Undoubtedly, many statistical procedures involve complex and dif...

Provided that the data show that a compound is safe, it is the primary efficacy analysis that determines whether the compound is approved. The secondary analyses support, clarify and confirm, but only one prospectively planned efficacy analysis can be primary in support of an effectiveness claim for a given trial. Why should this be so? And how can we design the trial and set up the primary eff...

Because the field of statistics has become so important in medicine, it is well worth the time of a physician in nuclear medicine to become acquainted with the lan guage of statistics, the elementary concepts, and a few of the more commonly used procedures. For this purpose we are presenting these essentials in a series of six short, nontechnical papers. Obviously, what can be accom plished in ...

Materials and methods We conducted a retrospective case study using two sources: 1) the Ontario Coroner’s database from 20032011; and 2) unpublished death reports between 1986 and 2000 gathered by Anaphylaxis Canada. Outcomes of interest included type of allergen, nature of reaction and treatment. Analyses included descriptive statistics and frequency analysis (quantitative data) and grounded t...

Psychometric aspects of the Dissociative Experiences Scale-II were studied with 308 American community college students. The overall DES mean was 21.70. Item-corrected correlations ranged from .30 to .62. The scale’s Cronbach Alpha was .92. There were no significant correlations between DES scores and sex or religiosity. Age was negatively and significantly correlated to DES scores (r = –.24). ...

Descriptive statistics include measures of central tendency and variability. Measures of central tendency include mean, median, and mode. The mean is the arithmetic average of data from interval or ratio scales. The median reflects the 50th percentile score. The mode is the most frequently occurring value of a data distribution. Measures of variability include range, interquartile range, standa...