Waqar H
Kazmi
MD MS (Tufts, Boston)
Principal, Professor of Nephrology and Director Research Karachi Medical and Dental College/Abbasi Shaheed Hospital
Karachi,
Pakistan
Farida
Habib Khan
DCH MPH MCPS FCPS
Professor of Community Medicine Princess Nora Bint Abdulrahman University
Riyadh,
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Foreword
Waris
Qidwai
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Basics in Epidemiology and Biostatistics
First Edition: 2015
9789351526315
Printed at
5Dedicated to
7Foreword
It gives me immense pleasure in writing a foreword for Basics in Epidemiology and Biostatistics, written by highly eminent and respected scholars Professor Waqar H Kazmi and Professor Farida Habib Khan. Prof Kazmi is considered an authority on this subject and has skills to present challenging concepts in the area of epidemiology and biostatistics, in an easy-to-understand language. He obtained his Masters in Epidemiology from Tufts University, Boston, USA and has a strong clinical background being a Professor of Nephrology, as well. Farida Habib Khan is the Professor of Community Medicine and served College of Physicians and Surgeons as a regular facilitator of the Workshops on Research Methodology and dissertation writing and served two medical journals as an Associate Editor.
The book fills a great need that exists for availability of such books on this important yet neglected subject. Epidemiology and biostatistics has been neglected in medical education curriculum and, therefore, healthcare providers are lacking expertise in this important area. The book will go a long way, in addressing important need to provide an easy-to-understand guide for healthcare providers and others, to understand and apply concepts of epidemiology and biostatistics in their work. Its simple language and practical approach, makes it indispensable for those involved in research work as well as those associated with teaching epidemiology and biostatistics. It will be useful for undergraduate and postgraduate students in various disciplines of healthcare as well as those practicing medicine.
Besides, the book would be highly useful to healthcare providers, teachers and researchers.
Waris Qidwai
Chair, Working Party on Research World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA)
Former Chair International Federation of Primary Care Research Networks (IFPCRN) Professor and Chairman
Department of Family Medicine
Aga Khan University
9Preface
Basics in Epidemiology and Biostatistics introduces the medical/dental students, postgraduates, researchers, or clinicians, to the study of statistics applied to medicine. We have incorporated our experiences in medicine and statistics to develop a comprehensive text covering the traditional topics of biostatistics and epidemiology. Particular emphasis is given to study design and the interpretation of results of medical research.
It has been more than a decade that we have been giving lectures at various undergraduate and postgraduate institutes. The students find these lectures worthwhile for the understanding of basic concepts in biostatistics and epidemiology. We realized that by writing a book, we could reach a large number of students and faculty members in remote areas, which were not accessible to us otherwise. Thus, we hope that anyone interested in research will find the book extremely helpful.
We have tried to explain all statistical concepts in simple terms. No special background knowledge will require to understand the text. An effort has been made to cover all the fundamental concepts and important terms in the book.
The book contains the following features:
Simple Text
The book is written in a very simple and easy-to-understand manner. The information given in the book is relevant to the need of any junior and early stage researcher. The information is presented in a schematic pattern. This is necessary because a learner must understand the pre-requisite information before understanding the more advanced concepts in basic epidemiology and biostatistics. Thus, all the information have been presented in a schematic and synchronized way so that the reader could grasp them very easily.
Pictorial and Tabular Display of Information
Different learners have different learning styles. Some find textual information easy to understand, while others are more at ease of understanding the pictorial and tabular display of information. Thus, all relevant texts have also been presented in a pictorial and tabular form. We hope that a large number of readers could grasp the important and useful information by having a good look at the pictures and tables.
Relevant Examples
We have used multiple clinical and nonclinical examples so that the reader will understand the basic concepts of epidemiology and biostatistics. Simple interesting examples have also been used for the purpose.
There are a number of softwares relevant to be used for research purpose. In this book, multiple softwares have been used to compute sample size. The reader will surely find the book useful to have the understanding of how to use the relevant software for sample size calculation.
Waqar H Kazmi
Farida Habib Khan
11Acknowledgments
We are extremely grateful to Muhammad Abdul Samad, Lecturer, Research Department, Karachi Medical and Dental College, Karachi, Pakistan, for his invaluable support and efforts in every stage of writing the book.
We express our gratitude to Mrs Huma Khan, Research Co-ordinator, Universal Research Group, Pakistan, for her support regarding proofreading of the book.
We are thankful to Asma Kazmi, Assistant Professor, California Institute of Fine Arts, Los Angeles, USA, for designing the Cover Page.