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Medical statistics (also health statistics) deals with applications of statistics to medicine and the health sciences, including epidemiology, public health, forensic medicine, and clinical research.[1] Medical statistics has been a recognized branch of statistics in the United Kingdom for more than 40 years, but the term has not come into general use in North America, where the wider term 'biostatistics' is more commonly used.[2] However, "biostatistics" more commonly connotes all applications of statistics to biology.[2] Medical statistics is a subdiscipline of statistics.
It is the science of summarizing, collecting, presenting and interpreting data in medical practice, and using them to estimate the magnitude of associations and test hypotheses. It has a central role in medical investigations. It not only provides a way of organizing information on a wider and more formal basis than relying on the exchange of anecdotes and personal experience, but also takes into account the intrinsic variation inherent in most biological processes.[3]
- ^ "Finding and Using Health Statistics". US National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
- ^ a b Dodge, Y. (2003) The Oxford Dictionary of Statistical Terms, OUP. ISBN 0-19-850994-4
- ^ Kirkwood, Betty R. (2003). Essential Medical Statistics. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-86542-871-3.