DEPARTMENT OF STATIS TICS
COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES
330.972.6886 (TELEPHONE)
Course Description
3470:470/570
Biostatistics and Epidemiology
3 credits
Prerequisite: 3470:262 Introductory Statistics II or 3470:461/561 Applied Statistics or
equivalent.
Course Description: Biostatistics and Epidemiological methods for biological and medical
studies, including ANOVA, analysis of repeated measures, disease-related measures, loglinear models and clinical trials.
Course Topics:
Introduction to Biostatistics.
Data analysis of complex comparisons of quantitative variables in the context of biological
and medical data.
Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple comparisons.
Analysis of repeated measures (longitudinal data and mixed models) and the assumptions
involved.
Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and crossover designs.
Introduction to Epidemiology.
Explanation of different study types, including cohort, case-control, cross-sectional, and
observational studies, and related definitions of bias and confounding.
Demonstration of calculation of various rates and their adjustments related to disease and
death, e.g., morbidity and mortality.
Discussion of measures to describe disease-exposure association, including risk, odds, odds
ratio, relative risk, and standard errors, and how to assess if association reflects causation.
Analysis of categorical responses including tests on proportions, contingency table analysis,
test of homogeneity, sensitivity and specificity of diagnostic and screening tests, ROC
curves, log-linear models for contingency tables and logistic regression.
Discussion of definition and description of clinical trials, including the clinical trial phases.
Discussion of important considerations necessary in data collection including ethical issues,
establishment of comparison groups, and sample size and power.
Fall 2014