Customer Reviews

Principles of Biostatistics (with CD-ROM)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Like Rosner's book by the same publisher, this text is an introductory text by Harvard professors who teach medical students. It seems to be in competition with Rosner's book which makes me wonder why the same publisher is publishing them both. The style is different but the market and level of the two books seem to be the same. Both texts include diskettes with data for PCs. Both books are well written and cover mostly the same topics. The Pagano text seems to go into a little more detail on contingency tables and survival analysis. Both contain lists of valuable references.

I'm a postdoctoral level biomedical researcher who has used many other biostatistics books before. This book is currently used for entry-level biostatistics at my School of Public Health. The bonus is that this book is geared towards epidemiology (eg, there is a chapter on rates and standardization), and I liked the CDROM that comes with the book and contains datasets.

Unfortunately, the authors have chosen to derive many key concepts from probability theory. This is fine if you are comfortable with probability concepts. However, most students with background in social sciences are not: thus I found that this approach often adds an unnecessary level of complexity.

Most of the examples are long-winded, dragging on from page to page - flipping back and forth is extremely frustrating, and the layout makes it difficult to grasp what the point of each example is. Also, the long-winded style makes this book a poor desk reference if you just quickly need to check a formula or definition. Sadly I have to say that I very rarely use this $100 book - there are plenty of more accessible and succinct entry-level texts that cost a fraction of this volume. And yes, Google is better learning tool than this book.

Let me just start by saying I really like math, but this book did not help me to learn biostatistics at all. It doesn't explain the issues and equations very well and it has absolutly no answers in the back to check with yours, that's a whole other book...and that only has answers to the odds. Perhaps this would be a decent book for anyone who already has a handle on the subject and wants to learn more, but if this is your first exposure to biostatistics, like me, try another source to learn from, this book makes a difficult subject near impossible.

This book make me think of standard matchmatic workbook in primary school era. It's great for reliablity and validity - ground important basics of biostatistics.The most helpful chapter is 9: confidence interval, this book's figure "sets of 95%CI from z and t distribution" is really make sense. However, I agree that book's organization might not attractive for reader who are clinician. I would appreciate discussion when and why use such statistic tests rather than follow (indeed skipping) so many algebras.
Exercise with dataset in CD is also valueable. Doing exercise before read content help me to concentrate and put efffort on what I really want to know. The last but not least, I do encourage the publisher of next edition to have alternative more affordable-paperback. I notice that 150+ USD push many classmates to order indian edition instead.

This could have been a great text. The chapter writing is detailed and provides interesting examples so that you understand the formulas and concepts being presented. Then you get to the problem sets, and half of the problems seem to have been written for a different textbook. I spent more time trying to figure out what was being asked of me then I did actually solving problems. And then there is the CD. The information on the text files is not properly formatted in a manner that is useful.

In the end, I was frustrated trying to learn from a text that makes language a barrier rather than a facilitator.

One of the first things you learn when studying statistics is that correlation does not equal causation. Yet on the very first page of this book the authors ignore this precept in order to engage in a bit of political propaganda.

You'd think someone writing a textbook would be smarter than that.

Bought this off Amazon for the cheapest price for my intro Stat class. Overall, it wasn't that bad because my professor explained the topics in it very well, however, if not for her, the notes and explanation section in the book are much too verbose and lacking good, clear examples. For instance, my Calculus textbook notes section before chapter problems has at least 2-3 problems for every type in varying difficulty whereas this only has one explanation contained in paragraphs.

This book helped me (a non-biostat person) pass a advanced biostats class. It was a good suppliment to a fast-paced course, as it gives the same info, but somewhat easier format.

On the other hand, it occasionally skipped steps and made confusing leaps.

So it was better than nothing.

This book is the gold standard in my department (Public Health at the Uni of Utah), but I'm not overly impressed. At times it is concise to a fault. I think there could be a few more examples and more general information about application of these operations in the real world.

Much easier to grasp than another text on the subject that I have experienced, (Biostatistics... A foundation for anlaysis in the Health Sciences; 8th Edition. Wayne W. Daniel). I am an MPH student with limited math background. Had a 4.0 going before my first experience with biostats. A "D" won't cut it in the program I am completing. Found an alternative Biostats course and the required text,(Principles of Biostats;Marcello Pagano), is much, much, easier for me to grasp. The real world examples and simplified methods make for an easier comprehension for those of us who lack a strong mathematic prerequisite.