I decided to write this book based on the many favorable responses I received about my first book: Multivariable Analysis: A Practical Guide for Clinicians. Readers who found the conceptual, non-mathematical approach to multivariable analysis helpful, asked me to write a basic statistics book using the same format. My hope is that the two books together will enable clinical researchers to design rigorous studies and analyse the data using both basic and advanced statistical techniques. Although oriented for researchers performing their own studies, the book will also enable readers of clinical research to understand how statistics are used – and misused – in the published literature.

My experience teaching statistics has led me to believe that most statistics textbooks present the material backwards. Typically the formulas and derivations are presented first; only after you have slogged your way through the mathematics are you rewarded with the fun part – analyzing data to answer important questions. The problem with this approach is that many readers will be bored or overwhelmed during the mathematical approach, and will have lost interest in the subject before they get to the fun part.

I have tried to do the opposite by putting the fun part first. I have included clinical examples at the beginning and throughout the text so that you can experience the intellectual pleasure of identifying a question and using statistical analyses to answer it. To ensure that the book would not be intimidating I have excluded derivations, minimized the use of algebraic expressions, and, where possible, used words rather than mathematical symbols to express the underlying statistical concepts.