Biostatistics Research Articles

Perception about the Role of Biostatistics in Medical Curriculum: A Cross-Sectional Study among Medical Students

Introduction: A good understanding of biostatistics can improve clinical thinking, decision-making, evaluations, and medical research. Undoubtedly, medical professionals are becoming aware of the importance of learning and applying biostatistical methods in their research. This study was done to assess the knowledge and attitude among medical graduates regarding the role and application of biostatistics in medical science. Method: The study was a cross-sectional study conducted in a tertiary care teaching hospital among 120 medical students pursuing MBBS third and final year. Systematic random sampling was used to select the study participants. A pretested validated semi-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Results: Majority of the study participants, strongly agree that the subject helps in interpretation (75.8%), and is important in medical practice (61.7%). However, 85% of the study participants feel that software is difficult to use. 90% of the study participants find the subject hard to understand. The mean score of subject content, understanding, the current impact was significantly higher among the fourth-year students than the third-year students. There was no significant difference between the genders. Conclusion: Introduction of data collection sessions and appraisal of excerpts in published articles can provide practical knowledge and accentuate the role of bio statistics in health care.

NAIVE STATISTICAL ANALYSES FOR COVID-19: APPLICATION TO DATA FROM BRAZIL AND ITALY

This article is a direct consequence of the authors' desire to discuss the role of statistics in data analysis. The analysis of coronavirus (COVID-19) databases are used as to show simple, but powerful statistical frameworks. We do believe that models for assessing future trends in temporal data in general, and in cases and/or deaths of COVID-19, belongs to the area of (Bio)Statistics. Just as engineers use knowledge of physics, chemistry and often architecture, when constructing bridges, buildings and roads, statisticians use knowledge of mathematics, computer science and even physics for modelling, analysing, and forecasting in order to transform data into information. While the statistician's contribution is rarely acknowledged, everyone knows that a building is a work of an engineer. Nonetheless, nowadays statistics has been gaining the attention that it deserves due to the rise of big data and data science that was built on the foundationsof statistics. This article shows that, even with only basic knowledge of statistics, one can adequately collaborate with the community in dealing with very important issues such as the COVID-19 numbers. In order to model and to obtain predictions we use well-known distributions to statisticians working on survival analysis: gamma, Weibull and log-normal distributions. We also make use of singular spectrum analysis, a simple non-parametric time series methodology, for an analogous purpose. Survival analysis is a research area widely used in Biostatistics and even in Reliability, while time series analysis is widely used across areas where the data is measured along the time.

Estrés académico y bioestadística en estudiantes de ciencias de la salud

La investigación se realizó con el objetivo de determinar la relación entre el estrés académico y el aprendizaje de la asignatura Bioestadística en estudiantes de Ciencias de la Salud de la Universidad Técnica de Manabí. Se desarrolló metodológicamente desde el tipo descriptiva – correlacional transeccional, con una muestra poblacional de 367 estudiantes de la facultad de ciencias de la salud. La correlación de Pearson entre estrés académico y aprendizaje en Bioestadística tiene un resultado de -0,048 lo cual indica que existe correlación lineal e inversamente proporcional entre las variables, siendo que el aprendizaje en Bioestadística es un factor que genera estrés académico en los estudiantes. La apatía se genera como un factor de riesgo que sirve de base para la profundización de aptitudes no favorables por parte de los estudiantes, entre las cuales se hace mención de la desmotivación, percepción negativa de la materia y de los profesores.

Mapping of Health Technology Assessment (HTA) teaching and training initiatives: Landscape for evidence-based policy decisions in India.

Demographic transitions accompanied with epidemiological shifts are affecting many countries around the globe. These apprehensions have raised the concern for constructing and sustaining healthcare systems especially among resource-constrained low- and middle-income-countries (LMICs) such as India. Introducing Health-Technology-Assessment (HTA) in the educational initiatives could support planners and policy-makers in formulating evidence-based-decision-making along with tackling inequalities/inefficiencies and promoting cost-effectiveness in resource allocation. A mapping exercise has been undertaken for examining the feasibility and implementation of HTA curriculum in the existing courses in India. To gain best possible insight on HTA curriculum, a situational analysis was conducted using systematic search strategy through search engines such as Google, Google Scholar, ProQuest and PubMed. Currently, seventy-one institutes in India are offering one or more courses through regular mode at undergraduate/postgraduate/diploma-certificate/doctorate-level pertaining to Medical-technology (MT), Biostatistics (BS), and Health-economics (HE). MT was offered in 37 institutes (52.12%), followed by BS in 23 (32.39%), and HE in nine (12.67%). Only two institutes (2.81%) are offering certificate-courses on HTA, mainly confined in virtual modules. This review reveals noticeable gaps in the existing curriculum in India and necessitates a novel academic initiative by introducing HTA in a full-fledged manner. Reforms in the research and educational initiatives need to be brought for promoting awareness regarding HTA. The application of domain needs to be widened from the field of health-policy formulators to research and teaching. This should be further strengthened with the strong academic collaborations to generate replicable findings, address challenges, and offer solutions for existing threats to HTA.

A NOTE ON THE ”TRANSMUTED TRANSMUTED–G FAMILY” OF CUMULATIVE DISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONS

In [1] the authors proposed a new ”transmuted transmuted – G (TT–G) family” of distributions.The authors’ assertion that probability distribution (in some particular cases) pro-duces very good results in approximating specific data from different fields such aspopulation dynamics, biostatistics, survival analysis and others has encouraged us toconduct further studies on ” saturation ” in Hausdorff sense of the corresponding com-mutative function to the horizontal asymptote.We also analyze some experimental data.The experiments show that in some cases the use of the model proposed in [1] andanalyzed in this article with ”respect to the Hausdorff distance” is satisfactory.Numerical examples, illustrating our results are presented using programming en-vironment CAS Mathematica.

What do medical students think about bio statistics education?

Biostatistics classes can cause many medical students to feel frustrated and frantic. Why is biostatistics part of the body of knowledge that is deemed essential and fundamental for the medical student and eventual practitioner? This is a question that many perplexed (because of trying to comprehend biostatistics) medical students ask. To reiterate, not perceiving the practical role (not just the test-taking role) of biostatistics may didn’t better motivate medical students to learn–and avoid want to learn–the language, purpose and practicality of biostatistics.

ACADEMIC SELF-EFFICACY, ATTITUDES AND KNOWLEDGE AMONG UNDERGRADUATE BIOSTATISTICS STUDENTS

Objective: The objectives of the present study were to evaluate the academic self-efficacy, content knowledge and confidence in these responses, as well as attitudes of students in an undergraduate biostatistics course. Design: The study was a cross-sectional analytical design. Setting: The study was carried out in Masinde Muliro University of science and technology Sample: Sampling frame consisting of 114 students who had at least taken a biostatistics course. Probability sampling technique of purposive sampling method was applied to select the students. ( n = 114 ) Analysis: Data were analyzed through path analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Main measures: Self-efficacy, confidence, attitude and knowledge Results: The estimation of this hypothesized structural model yielded an acceptable fit to the data, χ2 =45.9, df = 2; χ 2 /df ratio =22.123 (good), CFI = .933; RMSEA = .071, with 90% C.I. = .044 - .083, SRMR = .078. Attitude was a direct predictor of self-efficacy (β = .490, p < .001), confidence was a direct predictor of self-efficacy (β = .400, p < .001), self-efficacy was a direct predictor of knowledge (β = .515, p < .001). Conclusion: The study concludes that academic self-efficacy and optimism were strongly related to performance. Therefore, this study supports previous literature that found academic self-efficacy affects the success of students in the sciences. Recommendation: Educators should be aware of students' personality antecedents in order to improve their students' beliefs about their capabilities to master different areas of coursework. Article visualizations:

Hygiene and Public Health courses in Biology curricula: the Italian scenario and the best examples from all over the world.

Different longstanding and emerging challenges for public health have been identified including population ageing, migration, infectious and non-communicable diseases, the environment and climatic changes, increasing risks of misinformation and chronic underinvestment. The multi- and inter-disciplinary public health approach - including biology, epidemiology, biostatistics, anthropology and public policy - raises the need to train experienced professionals in different fields. The education on these matters is fundamental to ensure the human well-being. In the last years, education in schools of public health is changing in response to new evidence-based knowledge, opportunities for improvement and scientific discoveries. In this manuscript the current scenario of teaching Hygiene in all the Italian degree courses in Biology were reviewed and summarized and the most excellent examples of academic training offer of Public Health for Biologists worldwide were provided and discussed as a source of inspiration for novel Masters and PhD degree programmes in Italy.

Reasons to Believe: Biostatistics and Methodology for the Neurosurgeon.

Reasons to Believe: Biostatistics and Methodology for the Neurosurgeon.

The integrated approach to teaching Biostatistics and Epidemiology at Columbia

The integrated approach to teaching Biostatistics and Epidemiology at Columbia

The Biostatistics of Aging: From Gompertzian Mortality to an Index of Aging-Relatedness

Book reviewBy Gilberto Levy and Bruce Levin. ISBN 978-1-118-64585-7, John Wiley &amp; Sons, Inc. Hoboken, NJ 2014

Essentials of biostatistics

Essentials of biostatistics

Scientific journal publishes second eratum regarding false information by scientists funded by asbestos interests.

In a paper published on Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Public Health, Ilgren et al. claimed that cases of mesothelioma among workers of the Balangero (a municipality of the province of Turin, Northern Italy) chrysotile mine and nearby residents were not caused by chrysotile, but by other forms of asbestos. In support, they cited a reference where no pertaining evidence can be found. One year after the paper, an erratum was published by the journal editors in chief, warning that an erroneous citation was present. The erratum is weak and misleading, concealing the fact that a false statement was supported by such error and that it may serve the interests of the chrysotile industry, by dismissing evidence of chrysotile carcinogenicity. Some of the article authors, of the editors in chief and members of the journal editorial board had financial ties to asbestos interests.

Essentials of Biostatistics

Essentials of Biostatistics

Biostatistics - Reference of manuscripts submitted mid-2014 to mid-2015.

Biostatistics - Reference of manuscripts submitted mid-2014 to mid-2015.

Impact of Novel Enhanced Learning on Results for Courses on Control Systems and Biostatistics in Medical Electronics Programme

Enhanced learning is an important effective pedagogical tool which helps students to understand the concepts better. Assessment Tool is a concept to be used as against the mundane assessment method. This paper gives an experience report of the first author in implementation of two important courses taken by the students of department of Medical Electronics in two different semesters. The courses under consideration are with no laboratory attachment and so the students fall short of experiencing the outcomes for different concepts of the subject. An assessment tool was therefore introduced in the form of usage of a software tool to implement the concepts learnt in theory. The novel assessment tool usage introduced was assessed to quantify the effect of practical exposure. The improvement thus seen had a normal distribution in the scores obtained by students and looked ideal for the range of student group which usually had a skewed pattern.

Biostatistics - Reference of manuscripts submitted mid-2013 to mid-2014

Biostatistics - Reference of manuscripts submitted mid-2013 to mid-2014

Statistical and bioinformatics applications in biomedical omics research

From the initiation of human genome project in 1990, and announcement of its completion in 2003, to the publications of first drafts of human proteome in Nature on May 29, 2014, these omics research projects have not only revolutionized the scientific research and clinical practices, but also have profound influence on agriculture, renewable energy development, biotechnology, and many other disciplines. Rapid advancements in high-throughput molecular technologies in the past several decades have enabled the identification and profiling of high-dimensional omics data, including DNA/RNA sequencing, RNA expression, methylation, DNA copy number variation, metabolomics, proteomics, and post-translational modification data. It is by no means a trivial task to analyze these Big Data generated by different platforms since there are various complex computational and analytical issues associated with them. The field of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics has played an essential role in solving computational issues and making sense of these data so that the research findings could lead to better understanding of human health, improve disease diagnosis, and provide opportunities for personalized treatment for complex human diseases such as cancer.

Presentando una nueva serie - Temas y controversias en bioestadística

Presentando una nueva serie - Temas y controversias en bioestadística

Determining the information needs of Faculty members and Post-graduate students at Rehabilitation Faculty of Shahid Beheshti of Medical University-2011(1390)

Background and aims : Understandingthe information needs ofFacultymembersandgraduate studentshas an impact at raise and promotingknowledgeIf needsto beresolved. The peresent research aimed to determine the information needs of Facultymembers and post-graduate students at Rehabilitation Faculty of ShahidBeheshti of Medical University. Materials and methods: The methodology was descriptive-sectional survay using a questionnaire includes 56 question that Theevaluation andvalidationIthas been approvedby pundits inlibrary scienceand Biostatistics. Reliability of which was measured 0.85 based on Chronbach’s alpha.The populationconsisted of93persons datawereanalyzedby18 spsssoftware. Results: Finding show that(91.6%) of the populationchosedInternetas a first. (50.7%) of them goto the faculty libraryto provideinformation needs. . Rate of using the Google was (86/9%) as the first and Other Options about (13%) .The firstprioritywas touseprint resources (73/3%), ScienceDirect (59/2%) and Pubmed was (53/1%) . the most important hindrance in access to source was Low-speed internet ( 81.3%). Thetarget populationIn terms ofgenderThere was nosignificant difference intheneed for training(p= 0.236).BetweenFacultymembers and post-graduate students was nosignificantin terms ofusefulconferences (p=0.856). Conclusion: Internetis themain sourceused to gaininformation byrespondents.Most sourceswereusedprint resources, search in google, sciencedirect and pibmed.Low-speed Internethas beena major problemrespondents. Key words : Information needs; Facultymembers ; Post graduate students; Rehabilitation Faculty; Medical University