Enrollment year
2016/2017
Academic discipline
MED/01 (MEDICAL STATISTICS)
Department
DEPARTMENT OF CLINICAL-SURGICAL, DIAGNOSTIC AND PEDIATRIC SCIENCES
Curriculum
PERCORSO COMUNE
Period
(03/10/2016 - 27/01/2017)
Lesson hours
30 lesson hours
Learning outcomes
The course aims to provide the basic knowledge for a scientific approach to biological and clinical problems. The educational objective is the acquisition by students of skills for a rigorous quantitative approach to studies in nursing and midwifery fields.
At the end of the course students will have learned how :
- to use the main statistical tools for descriptive statistics ;
- to interpret critically the results of a statistical analysis .
Course contents
- Introduction to Medical Statistics. The logical steps of the research process.
- Descriptive and inferential statistics.
- Population and sample. Simple random , cluster and stratified sampling.
- Definition of statistical unit, variable, observation. Qualitative (nominal and ordinal) and quantitative (discrete and continuous) variables .
- Frequency distributions.
- Absolute, relative, percentage, cumulative frequencies.
- Graphical representation of qualitative and quantitative variables.
- Position measures (arithmetic mean, mode, median, percentiles).
- Dispersion measures (range, variance, standard deviation, variation coefficient ).
- Introduction to Probability. The basic properties of probability. Marginal, conditional and joint probabilities.
- Sensitivity and specificity of a diagnostic test. False positives and false negatives.
- The normal distribution.
- Introduction to statistical testing: null and alternative hypotheses, interpretation of p-values.
- The Chi-square test of independence between qualitative variables
Teaching methods
Lectures and practical exercises concerning the application of statistical methodology through the resolution of problems in the field of nursing science.
Reccomended or required readings
- Lantieri, Risso, Ravera STATISTICA MEDICA per le professioni sanitarie, McGrawHill, 2005
- W.W. Daniel – BIOSTATISTICA, EdiSES Seconda Edizione, 2007
Assessment methods
Written examination (resolution of exercises related to the program of the lessons ) .
Further information
Tutoring is available to students for any questions concerning lectures and exams . The meetings will be scheduled by appointment only .
cristina.montomoli@unipv.it , tel 0382 987533
Sustainable development goals - Agenda 2030