This textbook on statistics is written for students in medicine, epidemiology, and public health. It builds on the important role evidence-based medicine now plays in the clinical practice of physicians, physician assistants and allied health practitioners. By bringing research design and statistics to the fore, this book can integrate these skills into the curricula of professional programs. Students, particularly practitioners-in-training, will learn statistical skills that are required of today's clinicians. Practice problems at the end of each chapter and downloadable data sets provided by the authors ensure readers get practical experience that they can then apply to their own work.  Topics covered include:   Functions of Statistics in Clinical Research Common Study Designs Describing Distributions of Categorical and Quantitative Variables Confidence Intervals and Hypothesis Testing Documenting Relationships in Categorical and Quantitative Data< Assessing Screening and Diagnostic Tests Comparing Means of Independent and Related Samples Linear Regression Binary Logistic Regression Survival Analysis Regression Analysis of Count Data.