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Activity Number: 570
Type: Contributed
Date/Time: Wednesday, August 6, 2014 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
Sponsor: Section on Teaching of Statistics in the Health Sciences
Abstract #312093 View Presentation
Title: An Interesting Example for an Introductory Biostatistics Course: Simpson's Paradox
Author(s): Harry Norton*+ and William Anderson and Megan Templin and George Divine
Companies: Carolinas Medical Center and Carolinas Medical Center and Carolinas Medical Center and Henry Ford Hospital
Keywords: Teaching ; Statistical Education ; Introductory Biostatistics ; Paradoxes
Abstract:

Keeping undergraduate biology students and medical residents interested in statistics can be challenging, especially when most are taking the class as a requirement. To help accomplish this goal, we use examples of Simpson's paradox in our course lectures. In this presentation we will describe Simpson's paradox; give a brief history of the paradox; and present actual examples from medicine, epidemiology, and the law. We also present mathematical conditions under which the paradox cannot occur. Finally, we review statistical methods that will give valid results for this type of data.


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