RT Book, Section
A1 Portney, Leslie G.
A1 Watkins, Mary P.
SR Print(0)
ID 1138251878
T1 Statistical Inference
T2 Foundations of Clinical Research: Applications to Practice, 3e
YR 2017
FD 2017
PB McGraw-Hill Education
PP New York, NY
SN 9780803646575
LK fadavispt.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1138251878
RD 2024/04/16
AB In  the  previous  chapter  we  presented  statistics  that  can  be  used  to  summarize  and  describe  data.  Descriptive  procedures  are  not  sufficient,  however,  for  testing  theories  about  the  effects  of  treatments  or  for  generalizing  relationships  from  samples  to  populations.  For  these  purposes,  researchers  use  a  process  of  statistical  inference.  The  process  of  drawing  inferences  is  familiar  to  everybody.  When  we  decide  to  read  a  book  by  a  certain  author  after  having  enjoyed  other  books  by  that  same  author,  we  are  inferring  something  about  the  probable  quality  of  the  new  book.  When  a  specific  treatment  approach  produces  beneficial  effects  for  a  particular  patient,  a  clinician  might  decide  to  use  that  approach  for  other  patients  with  similar  conditions.  The  difference  between  these  subjective  inferences  and  statistical  inference  is  that  the  researcher  uses  objective  criteria  to  make  such  decisions.