Douglas Altman FMedSci was an English statistician best known for his work on improving the reliability and reporting of medical research and for highly cited papers on statistical methodology. David Machin is Professor of Media and Communication at örebro University, Sweden. He has published numerous books and journal papers mostly drawing on linguistic methods.

Contributors viii

Source of Contents ix

Introduction xiDouglas G. Altman, David Machin, Trevor N. Bryant

PART I: ESTIMATION AND CONFIDENCE INTERVALS

1 Estimating with Confidence 3Martin J. Gardner, Douglas G. Altman

2 Confidence Intervals in Practice 6Douglas G. Altman

3 Confidence Intervals Rather Than P Values 15Marin J. Gardner, Douglas G. Altman

4 Means and Their Differences 28Douglas G. Altman, Martin J. Gardner

5 Medians and Their Differences 36Michael J. Campbell, Martin J. Gardner

6 Proportions and Their Differences 45Robert G. Newcombe, Douglas G. Altman

7 Epidemiological Studies 57Julie A Morris, Martin J. Gardner

8 Regression and Correlation 73Douglas G. Altman, Martin J. Gardner

9 Time to Event Studies 93David Machin, Martin J. Gardner

10 Diagnostic Tests 105Douglas G. Altman

11 Clinical Trials and Meta-Analyses 120Douglas G. Altman

12 Confidence Intervals and Sample Sizes 139Leslie E. Daly

13 Special Topics 153Michael J. Campbell, Leslie E. Daly, David Machin

PART II: STATISTICAL GUIDELINES AND CHECKLISTS

14 Statistical Guidelines for Contributors to Medical Journals 171Douglas G. Altman, Sheila M. Gore, Martin J. Gardner, Stuart J. Pocock

15 Statistical Checklists 191Martin J. Gardner, David Machin, Michael J. Campbell, Douglas G. Altman

PART III. NOTATION, SOFTWARE, AND TABLES

16 Notation 205Douglas G. Altman

17 Computer Software for Calculating Confidence Intervals (CIA) 208Trevor N. Bryant

18 Tables for the Calculation of Confidence Intervals 214Martin J. Gardner

Index 233