The Importance Of Biostatistics

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Biostatistics is the branch of statistics responsible for interpreting the scientific data that is generated in the health sciences, including public health. Biostatistics has made major contributions to our understanding of countless public health issues, such as: Chronic diseases, pollution and death rates. When an assertion is made such as "fast foods are causing obesity", or "smoking causes lung cancer," statistics is central in determining how valid these statements are. Biostatisticians have worked to create methods used in population surveys which focuses on data collection that will result in more accurate conclusion of the research data. Biostatisticians also develop analytical tools used in obtaining the most appropriate conclusions …show more content…

Biostatisticians are very good at developing the mathematical tools to measure problems, to determine the associations of risk factors with disease, and models to predict the effect of policy changes. Biostatisticians can create tools necessary to prioritize problems and estimate costs; these cost associations are both inclusive of monetary and undesirable side effects of preventive and curative measures. Biostatisticians use sampling and estimation methods to study the factors related to compliance and outcome. Questions that can be addressed include whether improvement is due to compliance or something else, how best to measure compliance, and how to increase the compliance level in the target population. This effort includes how to design the survey instruments in a way that checks for inaccuracies, and the development of techniques which correct for nonresponse or for missing observations. Finally, Biostatisticians are directly involved in the evaluation of the effect of interventions and whether to attribute beneficial changes to …show more content…

Public health in the United States in the early 1900s focused on improving sanitation, controlling infectious diseases, assuring the safety of the food and water supply, and providing immunizations to children with a workforce composed mostly of physicians, nurses, and biological scientists (Brandt and Gardner, 2000; Garrett, 2000; Mullan, 2000). Today’s public health challenges are much broader. Healthy People 2010 lays out a broad agenda for public health efforts aimed at increasing health-related quality of life and eliminating health disparities (U.S. DHHS, 2000). Koplan and Fleming (2000) outline 10 challenges for public health that include cleaning up the environment, eliminating health disparities, wisely using new scientific knowledge and technology, attending to children’s physical and emotional development, and aging healthily. The solutions will require multi-faceted public health policies, with an ecological approach. This will require well-educated interdisciplinary group of public health professionals whose focus is population health. A specialized set of professionals who also understand that successful interventions require understanding not only of the effects of biology and behavior, but also the social, environmental, and economic contexts within which populations

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