The course provides an introduction to statistical methodology and supplies a number of statistical techniques important for practical data analysis. Examples from the medical and biological fields will be used in exercises. Datasets will be analyzed on the computer using the statistical package SPSS and optionally R. Some of these examples are:

• Is there a superiority of streptomycin in the treatment of patients with tuberculosis?
• Does it take babies longer to learn to crawl in cold months, when they are often bundled in clothes that restrict their movement, than in warmer months?
• Is there an effect of temperature on the size of the cobweb from the spider Achaearanea tepidariorum?
• Are there any differences in maximum concentration, time to maximum concentration and total amount of drug between immediate release codeine (IRC) and sustained release codeine (SRC) for pain relief medications?
• Are the size and weight of your brain indicators of your mental capacity?
• What are the risk factors for Proventricular Dilatation Disease (PDD) in parrots?
• What is the effect of global distribution of physicians and nurses on maternal mortality rate?
• Which factors influence the level of mercury contamination in our water?
• ...and many more

The first part covers the "Basics of Biostatistics", statistical testing for one and two samples, confidence intervals, simple linear regression and correlation, one way analysis of variance, binomial distribution and proportions, analysis of contingency tables and non-parametric statistics.

The second part covers an "Introduction to Modeling" and introduces the most important regression models used in biomedical research, that can be used in the study of the relation between a number of explanatory variables on the one hand, and the occurrence of an outcome on the other: multiple regression and logistic regression.

Note: Some basic statistical notions will be assumed known, such as measures of location (mean, median) and scale (variance, standard deviation), the normal distribution, standard error of the mean. They will not explicitly be repeated in the course, but will be used implicitly. If necessary, participants should refresh their knowledge using a statistics book used in previous courses, or using the statistics e-books from CAST.