Description

This book of “Medical Statistics” consists of refereed contributions by expert biostatisticians that discuss various probabilistic and statistical models used in public health. There are many topics discussed include models based on Markov and semi-Markov processes, multi-state models, models and methods in lifetime data analysis, accelerated failure models, design and analysis of clinical trials, Bayesian methods, pharmaceutical and environmental statistics, degradation models, epidemiological methods, screening programs, early detection of diseases, and measurement and analysis of quality of life. An impact of environment on mortality, similar to survival analysis, is often modelled by the proportional hazards model, which assumes the corresponding comparison with a baseline environment. This model describes the memory-less property, when the mortality rate at a given instant of time depends only on the environment at this instant of time and does not depend on the history. In the presence of degradation the assumption of this kind is usually unrealistic and history-dependent models should be considered. This book is compiled in such a manner, that it will provide an in-depth knowledge about public health as well as the application of probability, statistics and modeling in this field. It is appropriate for those seeking detailed information in this area of study.