G651: Introduction to Biostatistics I

Division of Biostatistics
Fall 2006

Course Description and Objectives

G651 is an introductory level biostatistics course designed for healthcare professionals. This
course will cover the topics on data presentation techniques, describing data with numerical
summary measures, probability and probability distributions, sampling distributions, statistical
inferences from small and large samples, analysis of categorical data, analysis of variance,
correlation and simple linear regression analysis.

The primary objectives of this course are to

• Teach data presentation techniques using graphs and summary statistics

• Provide a basic foundation of probability and probability distributions
• Teach how to formulate an appropriate hypothesis and make relevant inferences
from
quantitative and qualitative data
• Educate how to apply analysis of variance technique to real life data and develop
a model for a response variable in order to identify the associated significant
predictors.

Upon completion of the course, students will understand and be able to apply basic techniques in
descriptive and inferential statistics. These will include: graphical and numerical description of
data; elementary probability calculation and distributions; point and confidence interval
estimation, as well as hypothesis testing concerning population means and proportions; simple
contingency table analyses; analysis of variance; correlation and simple regression techniques.
Students will be introduced to basic operations and analytical procedures in SPSS on personal
computers. They will be able to understand and interpret the statistical analysis in research
articles published in medical journals.

Textbook

Principles of Biostatistics, Second Edition by Pagano and Gauvreau.

Prerequisites

One year undergraduate mathematics

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Instructors

This course is taught by two instructors. Each instructor will be responsible for answering
questions that arise in his section. For general course related questions, please contact Dr. Yu,
the course coordinator.

Menggang Yu, Ph.D., Course Coordinator

Regenstrief Building, 4th floor, R4122
Tel: 278-5471,
Email: meyu@iupui.edu

Changyu Shen, Ph.D.

Regenstrief Building, 4th floor, R4144
Tel: 274-1641
Email: chashen@iupui.edu

Meeting Time and Place

T
From August 24th through Dec 11th, 2006, the class meets every Tuesday and Thursday, 02:15 –
03:45 PM in RG4147. (No class on Nov 23 due to Thanksgiving Recess). Mid-term and Final
Examination are to be scheduled. Lab meeting is at MS B16A (door passcode: 78963*).

Office Hours

Thursdays 3:45 – 5:15 pm or by appointment.

Assessment and Grading

Course objectives will be assessed with 12 to 14 homework assignments, one midterm test
and a comprehensive final examination. SPSS skills will be evaluated via homework
assignments. Students are encouraged to participate in discussions on real problem solving.

Class materials and home work assignments will be posted on Oncourse website and home
works will be collected in class the following week. No late home works will be accepted. Make-
up examinations will be given for serious illness or after previous consultation with the
instructor. The final examination will be cumulative and cover the entire semester. The final
course grade will be determined using the following weighting scheme:

Homework 40%
Mid terms 30%
Final Exam 30%

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Schedule of Lectures

Lecture 1 (August 24th and 29th )

Chapter 2. Data Presentation

2.1 Types of data
2.2 Frequency Tables
2.3 Graphs

Chapter 3. Numerical Summary Measures

3.1 Measures of central tendency
3.2 Measures of dispersion
3.3 Grouped data

SPSS Lab

Home work #1 is assigned

Lecture 2 (August 31st and September 5th )

Chapter 6 & 7. Probability

6.1 Basic idea of probability
7.1 Concept on probability distributions
7.2 Binomial
6.2 Conditional probability
6.3 Diagnostic tests

Home work #2 is assigned and home work #1 is due

Lecture 3 (September 7th and 12th )

Chapter 7 &8 . Probability Distributions and Sampling Distributions

7.3 Normal
7.5 Applications
8.1 Normal distribution of the sample mean
8.2 Central limit theorem
8.3 Applications of the central limit theorem

Home work #3 is assigned and home work #2 is due

Lecture 4. (September 14th and 19th )

Chapter 10. Hypothesis Testing

10.1 General concepts
10.2 Two-sided tests of hypotheses

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 10.3 One-sided and two-sided tests of hypotheses
10.4 Types of error
10.5 Power

Home work #4 is assigned and home work #3 is due

Lecture 5. (September 21st and 26th )

Chapter 9 & 10. Hypothesis Testing

9.3 Student’s t distribution
10.2 The t-test
10.6 Applications of One-sample test

SPSS Lab

Home work #5 is assigned and home work #4 is due

Midterm. (September 28th )

Open book and notes

Lecture 6. (October 3rd and 5th )

Discussion on the First Midterm

Chapter 9. Confidence Intervals of a Single Mean

9.1 Two-sided confidence intervals
9.2 One-sided confidence intervals
9.3 Applications
SPSS Lab

Home work #6 is assigned and home work #5 is due

Teaching evaluation for Dr. Yu

Dr. Shen will teach rest of the materials

Lecture 7. (October 10th and 12th)

Chapter 11&9. Comparison of Two Means

11.1 Paired samples
11.2 Independent samples
9.1 Confidence intervals on difference of two means

SPSS Lab

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Home work #7 is assigned and home work #6 is due

Lecture 8. (October 17th and 19th)

Chapter 12. Analysis of Variance

12.1 One-way analysis of variance
12.2 Multiple comparisons procedures

SPSS Lab

Home work #8 is assigned and home work #7 is due

Lecture 9. (October 24th and 26th )

Chapter 14. Inference on Proportions

14.1 Normal approximation to the Binomial distribution
14.2 Sampling distribution of a proportion
14.3 Confidence intervals
14.4 Hypothesis testing
14.5 Sample size estimation
14.6 Comparison of two proportions

SPSS Lab

Home work #9 is assigned and home work #8 is due

Lecture 10. (October 31st and November 2nd )

Chapter 15. Contingency Tables

15.1 Chi-Square test for 2 × 2 tables
15.2 Chi-Square test for r × c tables
15.3. Odds ratio

SPSS Lab

Home work #10 is assigned and home work #9 is due

Lecture 11. (November 7th and November 9th)

Chapter 17. Correlation

17.1 The two-way scatter plot
17.2 Pearson’s correlation coefficient

SPSS Lab

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Home work #11 is assigned and home work #10 is due

Lecture 12. (November 14th and November 16th)

Chapter 18. Simple Linear Regression

18.1 Linear regression concepts
18.2 Fittings of a regression line by the method of least squares
18.4 Some applications

SPSS Lab

Home work #12 is assigned and home work #11 is due

Lecture 13. (November 21th and November 28th)

Chapter 18. Simple Linear Regression

18.2 Inference for regression concepts
18.3 Evaluation of the model

SPSS Lab

Home work #13 is assigned and home work #12 is due

Lecture 14 (November 30th)

Final review

Home work #13 is due

Teaching evaluation for Dr. Shen

Teaching evaluation for the whole class

Final exam (in the week of December 4th, TBA)

Open books and notes