What Is the Importance of Statistics in Medicine?
Health statistics provide a clear indicator as to the well-being of a population, individual or country, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Statistics in medicine help assess patients and provide insight into subgroups within a population.
Statistics are an essential part of medical research, according to HowStuffWorks. Researchers use statistical tests to determine results from experiments, clinical trials of medicine and symptoms of diseases. The use of statistics in medicine provides generalizations for the public to better understand their risks for certain diseases, such as links between certain behaviors and heart disease or cancer. A wide range of professions within the medical field use statistics, according to Wikipedia. Descriptive statistics show the portion of a population with a disease, for example. Inferential statistics help determine causes to diseases. Those in the pharmaceutical, forensic and biological sciences all use statistics to relay information about health and medicine.
Researchers must report statistics in medicine in a uniform way to provide the general public and other researchers with clear information, according to Virginia Commonwealth University. Researchers must provide information on the methodology of the research design, along with significance levels, so that an individual understands the validity of each statistical reporting.
