Statistical methods have become an increasingly important and integral part of research in the health sciences. Many sophisticated methodologies have been developed for specific applications and problems. This self-contained volume, an outgrowth of an International Conference on Statistics in Health Sciences, covers a wide range of topics pertaining to new statistical methods in the health sciences. The chapters, written by leading experts in their respective fields, are thematically divided into the following areas: prognostic studies and general epidemiology, pharmacovigilance, quality of life, survival analysis, clustering, safety and efficacy assessment, clinical design, models for the environment, genomic analysis, and animal health. This comprehensive volume will serve the health science community as well as practitioners, researchers, and graduate students in applied probability, statistics, and biostatistics.

Parametric and semiparametric models are tools with a wide range of applications to reliability, survival analysis, and quality of life. This self-contained volume examines these tools in survey articles written by experts currently working on the development and evaluation of models and methods. While a number of chapters deal with general theory, several explore more specific connections and recent results in "real-world" reliability theory, survival analysis and related fields.

Specific topics covered include:

* non-parametric estimation of lifetimes of subjects exposed to radiation

* statistical analysis of simultaneous degradation-mortality data with covariates of the aged

* estimation of maintenance efficiency in semiparametric imperfect repair models

* cancer prognosis using survival forests

* short-term health problems related to air pollution: analysis using semiparametric generalized additive models

* parametric models in accelerated life testing and fuzzy data

* semiparametric models in the studies of aging and longevity

This book will be of use as a reference text for general statisticians, theoreticians, graduate students, reliability engineers, health researchers, and biostatisticians working in applied probability and statistics.

On October 16 and 17, 2000, we hosted an international workshop entitled "Statistical Design, Measurement, and Analysis of Health Related Quality of Life." The workshop was held in the beautiful city of Arradon, South Brittany, France with the main goal of fostering an interdisciplinary forum for discussion of theoretical and applied statistical issues arising in studies of health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Included were biostatisticians, psychometricians and public health professionals (e.g., physicians, sociologists, psychologists) active in the study ofHRQoL. In assembling this volume, we invited each conference participant to contribute a paper based on his or her presentation and the ensuing and very interesting discussions that took place in Arradon. All papers were peer-reviewed, by anonymous reviewers, and revised before final editing and acceptance. Although this process was quite time consuming, we believe that it greatly improved the volume as a whole, making this book a valuable contribution to the field ofHRQoL research. The volume presents a broad spectrum of papers presented at the Workshop, and thus illustrates the range of current research related to the theory, methods and applications of HRQoL, as well as the interdisciplinary nature ofthis work. Following an introduction written by Sir David Cox, it includes 27 articles organized into the following chapters."

Biostatistics and Computer-Based Analysis of Health Data Using the R Software addresses the concept that many of the actions performed by statistical software comes back to the handling, manipulation, or even transformation of digital data. It is therefore of primary importance to understand how statistical data is displayed and how it can be exploited by software such as R. In this book, the authors explore basic and variable commands, sample comparisons, analysis of variance, epidemiological studies, and censored data. With proposed applications and examples of commands following each chapter, this book allows readers to apply advanced statistical concepts to their own data and software.

Parametric and semiparametric models are tools with a wide range of applications to reliability, survival analysis, and quality of life. This self-contained volume examines these tools in survey articles written by experts currently working on the development and evaluation of models and methods. While a number of chapters deal with general theory, several explore more specific connections and recent results in "real-world" reliability theory, survival analysis, and related fields. Specific topics covered include: * cancer prognosis using survival forests * short-term health problems related to air pollution: analysis using semiparametric generalized additive models * semiparametric models in the studies of aging and longevity This book will be of use as a reference text for general statisticians, theoreticians, graduate students, reliability engineers, health researchers, and biostatisticians working in applied probability and statistics.

This volume of the Biostatistics and Health Sciences Set focuses on statistics applied to clinical research. The use of SAS for data management and statistical modeling is illustrated using various examples. Many aspects of data processing and statistical analysis of cross-sectional and experimental medical data are covered, including regression models commonly found in medical statistics. This practical book is primarily intended for health researchers with a basic knowledge of statistical methodology. Assuming basic concepts, the authors focus on the practice of biostatistical methods essential to clinical research, epidemiology and analysis of biomedical data (including comparison of two groups, analysis of categorical data, ANOVA, linear and logistic regression, and survival analysis). The use of examples from clinical trials and epidemiological studies provide the basis for a series of practical exercises, which provide instruction and familiarize the reader with essential SAS commands.

This volume of the Biostatistics and Health Sciences Set focuses on statistics applied to clinical research. The use of Stata for data management and statistical modeling is illustrated using various examples. Many aspects of data processing and statistical analysis of cross-sectional and experimental medical data are covered, including regression models commonly found in medical statistics. This practical book is primarily intended for health researchers with basic knowledge of statistical methodology. Assuming basic concepts, the authors focus on the practice of biostatistical methods essential to clinical research, epidemiology and analysis of biomedical data (including comparison of two groups, analysis of categorical data, ANOVA, linear and logistic regression, and survival analysis). The use of examples from clinical trials and epideomological studies provide the basis for a series of practical exercises, which provide instruction and familiarize the reader with essential Stata packages and commands.