This is a highly accessible textbook on understanding statistics for the health sciences, both conceptually and via SPSS. The authors give clear explanations of the concepts underlying statistical analyzes and descriptions of how these analyzes are applied in health sciences research without complex statistical formulae. The book takes students from the basics of research design, hypothesis testing, and descriptive statistical techniques through to more advanced inferential statistical tests that health sciences students are likely to encounter. Exercises and tips throughout the book allow students to practice using SPSS.

PART ONE: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE RESEARCH PROCESS -- Overview -- The Research Process -- Concepts and Variables -- Levels of Measurement -- Hypothesis Testing -- Evidence-Based Practice -- Research Designs -- Multiple-Choice Questions -- PART TWO: COMPUTER-ASSISTED ANALYSIS -- Overview -- Overview of the Three Statistical Packages -- Introduction to SPSS -- Setting out Your Variables for within - and between-Group Designs -- Introduction to R -- Introduction to SAS -- Summary -- Exercises -- PART THREE: DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS -- Overview -- Anaylsing Data -- Descriptive Statistics -- Numerical Descriptive Statistics -- Choosing a Measure of Central Tendency -- Measures of Variation or Dispersion -- Deviations from the Mean -- Numerical Descriptives in SPSS -- Graphical Statistics -- Bar Charts -- Line Graphs -- Incorporating Variability into Graphs -- Generating Graphs with Standard Deviations in SPSS -- Graphs Showing Dispersion - Frequency Histogram -- Box-Plots -- Summary -- SPSS Exercise -- Multiple Choice Questions -- PART FOUR: THE BASIS OF STATISTICAL TESTING -- Overview -- Introduction -- Samples and Populations -- Distributions -- Statistical Significance -- Criticisms of NHST -- Generating Confidence Intervals in SPSS -- Summary -- SPSS Exercise -- Multiple Choice Questions -- PART FIVE: EPIDEMIOLOGY -- Overview -- Introduction -- Estimating the Prevalence of Disease -- Difficulties in Estimating Prevalence -- Beyond Prevalence: Identifying Risk Factors for Disease -- Risk Ratios -- The Odds-Ratio -- Establishing Causality -- Case-Control Studies -- Cohort Studies -- Experimental Designs -- Summary -- Multiple Choice Questions -- PART SIX: INTRODUCTION TO DATA SCREENING AND CLEANING -- Overview -- Introduction -- Minimising Problems at the Design Stage -- Entering Data into Databases/Statistical Packages -- The Dirty Dataset -- Accuracy -- Using Descriptive Statistics to Help Identify Errors -- Missing Data -- Spotting Missing Data -- Normality -- Screening Groups Separately -- Reporting Data Screning and Cleaning Procedures -- Summary -- Multiple Choice Questions -- PART SEVEN: DIFFERENCES BETWEEN TWO GROUPS -- Overview -- Introduction -- Conceptual Description of the t-Tests -- Generalising to the Population -- Independent Groups t-Test in SPSS -- Cohen's d -- Paired t-Test in SPSS -- Two-Sample z-Test -- Non-Parametric Tests -- Mann-Whitney: for Independent Groups -- Mann-Whitney Test in SPSS -- Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test: For Repeated Measures -- Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test in SPSS -- Adjusting for Multiple Tests -- Summary -- Multiple Choice Questions -- PART EIGHT: DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THREE OR MORE CONDITIONS -- Overview -- Introduction -- Conceptual Description of the (Parametric) ANOVA -- One-Way ANOVA -- One-way ANOVA in SPSS -- ANOVA Models for Repeated-Measures Designs -- Repeated Measures ANOVA in SPSS -- Non-parametric Equivalents -- The Kruskal-Wallis Test -- Kruskal-Wallis and the Median Test in SPSS -- The Median Test -- Friedman's ANOVA for Repeated Measures -- Friedman's ANOVA in SPSS -- Summary -- Multiple Choice Questions -- PART NINE: TESTING ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN CATEGORICAL VARIABLES -- Overview -- Introduction -- Rationale of Contingency Table Analysis -- Running the Analysis in SPSS -- Measuring Effect Size in Contingency Table Analysis -- Larger Contingency Tables -- Contingency Table Analysis Assumptions -- The X2 Goodness of Fit Test -- Running the X2 Goodness of Fit Test Using SPSS -- Summary -- Multiple Choice Questions -- PART TEN: MEASURING AGREEMENT: CORRELATIONAL TECHNIQUES -- Overview -- Introduction -- Bivariate Relationships -- Perfect Correlations -- Calculating the Correlation Pearson's R Using SPSS. -- How to obtain Scatterplots -- Variance Explanation of R -- Obtaining Correlational Analysis in SPSS: Exercise -- Partial Correlations -- Shared and Unique Variance: Conceptual Understanding Relating to Partial Corrections -- Spearman's Rho -- Other uses for Correlational Techniques -- Reliability of Measures -- Internal Consistency -- Inter Rater Reliability -- Validity -- Percentage Agreement -- Cohen's Kappa -- Summary -- Multiple Choice Questions -- PART 11: LINEAR REGRESSION -- Overview -- Introduction -- Linear Regression in SPSS -- Obtaining teh Scatterplot with Regression Line and Confidence Intervals in SPSS -- Assumptions Underlying Linear Regression -- Dealing with Outliers -- What happens if the Correlation Between X and Y is Near Zero? -- Using Regression to Predict Missing Data in SPSS -- Prediction of Missing Scores on Cognitive Failures in SPSS -- Summary -- Multiple-Choice Questions -- PART TWELVE: STANDARD MULTIPLE REGRESSION -- Overview -- Introduction -- Multiple Regression in SPSS -- Variables in the Equation -- The Regression Equation -- Predicting an Individual's Score -- Hypothesis Testing -- Other Types of Multiple Regression -- Hierarchical Multiple Regression -- Summary -- Multiple Choice Questions -- PART THIRTEEN: LOGISTIC REGRESSION -- Overview -- Introduction -- The Conceptual Basis of Logistic Regression -- Writing up the Result -- Logistic Regression with Multiple Predictor Variables -- Logistic Regression with Categorical Predictors -- Categorical Predictors with Three or More Levels -- Summary -- Multiple Choice Questions -- INTERVENTIONS AND ANALYSIS OF CHANGE -- Overview -- Interventions -- How do we Know Whether Interventions are Effective? -- Randomised Control Trials (RCTs) -- Designing an RCT: CONSORT -- The CONSORT Flow Chart -- Important Features of an RCT -- Blinding -- Analysis of RCTs -- Running an ANCOVA in SPSS -- McNemar's Test of Change -- Running McNemar's Test in SPSS -- The Sign Test -- Running the Sign Test using SPSS -- Intention to Treat Analysis -- Crossover Designs -- Single Case Designs (N= 1) -- Generating Single Case Design Graphs Using SPSS -- Summary -- SPSS Exercise -- Multiple Choice Questions -- PART FIFTEEN: SURVIVAL ANALYSIS: AN INTRODUCTION -- Overview -- Introduction -- Survival Curves -- The Kaplan-Meier Survival Function -- Kaplan-Meier Survival Analyses in SPSS -- Comparing Two Survival Curves - the Mantel-Cox test -- Mantel-Cox using SPSS -- Hazard -- Hazard Curves -- Hazard Functions in SPSS -- Writing up a Survival Analysis -- Summary -- SPSS Exercise -- Multiple Choice Questions.