Course

Introduction to Biostatistics

Faculty
Commerce & Business Administration
Department
Business
Course code
BUSN 1335
Credits
3.00
Semester length
15 Weeks X 4 Hours per Week = 60 Hours
Max class size
35
Method(s) of instruction
Lecture
Seminar
Typically offered
To be determined

Overview

Course description
This course restricted to HIM students is an introduction to biostatistics - statistical methods applied to data derived from biological sciences and medicine. Topics covered include descriptive statistics, probability concepts, probability distributions such as the binomial, Poisson and normal distributions, sampling distribution and linear estimation.
Course content

 

  1. Simple Random Sample.
  2. Frequency distribution.
  3. Measures of Central Tendency and Dispersion.
  4. Calculating the probability of an event: conditional, joint, marginal probabilities.
  5. Probability distributions of discrete variables: Binomial distribution and Poisson.
  6. Probability distribution of continuous variable: Normal distribution.
  7. Distribution of the sample mean: central limit theorem.
  8. Distribution of the sample proportion.
  9. Confidence interval for a population mean.
  10. The t-distribution.
  11. Confidence interval for a population proportion.
  12. Determination of sample size for estimating means.
  13. Determination of sample size for estimating proportion.
  14. Confidence interval for the variance of a normally distributed population.
  15. Hypothesis Testing: Formulating and testing a research hypothesis, l-tailed tests about a sample mean, type 1 error.
Learning activities

 

Material will be presented primarily in lecture form with some time allocated for classroom discussion, correction of assigned exercises and completing exercise using a statistical software and spreadsheet.

Means of assessment

A final course grade will be determined based on the following:

Semester tests (2-3)      50%
Class participation   0-05%
Assignments and quizzes  15-20%
Final examination      30%
      100%

Students may conduct research as part of their coursework in this class. Instructors for the course are responsible for ensuring that student research projects comply with College policies on ethical conduct for research involving humans, which can require obtaining Informed Consent from participants and getting the approval of the Douglas College Research Ethics Board prior to conducting the research.

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the successful student should be able to:

  1. organize and summarize health science data;
  2. draw a scientific sample from a population;
  3. apply the appropriate inferential statistics technique to reach decisions about a population by examining a sample;
  4. apply these statistical techniques both manually and using statistical and spreadsheet software.
Textbook materials

Textbooks and Materials to be Purchased by Students

Triola, Mark M., M.D. Biostatistics for the Biological and Health Sciences, Latest Ed.  Pearson Addison Wesley.  ISBN 0-321-19436-5. and a Student’s Solution Manual ISBN 0-321-28689-8

OR

Daniel, Wayne W.  Biostatistics:  A Foundation for Analysis in Health Sciences, Latest Ed.  John Wiley and Sons Inc.

 

Statistical Packages:  Any Statistical software packages at the discretion of the instructor.

 

For Minitab software, the following guide could be used in class:

Ryan, Barbara and Brian Joiner.  Minitab Handbook, Latest Ed.  Wadworth Inc.

 

For Excel spreadsheet, one of the following texts could be used:

                Berk, K. N. and P. Casey.  Data Analysis with Microsoft Excel, Latest Ed.  Course Technology Inc.

                Middleton, M. R.  Data Analysis Using Microsoft Excel, Latest Ed.  Duxbury Press.

Requisites

Prerequisites

No prerequisite courses.

Corequisites

No corequisite courses.

Equivalencies

Courses listed here are equivalent to this course and cannot be taken for further credit:

  • No equivalency courses

Course Guidelines

Course Guidelines for previous years are viewable by selecting the version desired. If you took this course and do not see a listing for the starting semester / year of the course, consider the previous version as the applicable version.

(Current)

Course Transfers

These are for current course guidelines only. For a full list of archived courses please see https://www.bctransferguide.ca

Institution Transfer details for BUSN 1335
Langara College (LANG) LANG STAT 1XXX (3)
Thompson Rivers University (TRU) TRU STAT 1201 (3)
University of Northern BC (UNBC) UNBC ECON 205 (3)
University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) UFV GE 1XX (3)

Course Offerings

Winter 2025