STATISTICS APPLIED TO MEDICINE
The course is structured according to these contents and fundamental points:
1. Inferential statistics: review of the concept of hypothesis testing, p-values and confidence intervals;
2. Hypothesis testing about the mean of two or more populations;
3. Nonparametric inference on continuous (rank-based tests) or discrete (chi-square) variables
4. Confounding and bias in observational studies: methods of statistical analysis
5. Statistical analysis of prospective studies: time to event. Survival, risk and hazard functions. Relative measures of association: relative risk, odds ratio and hazard ratio.
- Inferential statistics: review of the concept of p-value, hypothesis testing and 95% confidence interval
- Inference on the means of two or more populations: t test, analysis of variance
- Non-parametric inference: rank-based tests for continuous variables, chi-square tests for discrete variables
- Observational studies in medicine: definition and sources of bias and confounding, and statistical methods to be used in these contexts
- Fundamental elements of survival analysis: survival function, cumulative risk function, and hazard function. The concept of censorship. Kaplan-Meier curves. Regression models and estimation of hazard ratios.
The course is based on lectures. The theoretical contents of the course will be presented together with practical examples, taken from medical scientific literature, which aim to illustrate applications of the same in the medical field. All the course material useful for preparing for the exam, including the slides and texts of the lessons, links to videos, and the articles of scientific literature that will be discussed in class, will be available to students on the e-learning platform, typically some day before class.
The teacher encourages students to clarify their doubts through questions during lessons, setting aside dedicated time at the beginning of each lesson and for critical discussion of the articles presented as examples. It is also possible to make an appointment with the teacher, to be agreed via email: giovanni.veronesi@uninsubria.it