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Notes on Medical Statistics – BMJ

Over the years, the British Medical Journal has published much valuable medical statistics notes. Here is an overwiew of the articles that I know of, on the whole in chronological order:

Gardner, M.J.; Altman, D.G. (1986): Confidence intervals rather than P values: estimation rather than hypothesis testing. BMJ, vol. 292, pp. 746–750.

Florey, C.D. (1993): Sample size for beginners. BMJ, vol. 306, pp. 1181–1184.

Bland, J.M.; Altman, D.G. (1994): Correlation, regression, and repeated data. BMJ, vol. 308, p. 896.

Bland, J.M.; Altman, D.G. (1994): Regression towards the mean. BMJ, vol. 308, p. 1499.

Altman, D.G.; Bland, J.M. (1994): Diagnostic tests 1: sensitivity and specificity. BMJ, vol. 308, p. 1552.

Altman, D.G.; Bland, J.M. (1994): Diagnostic tests 2: predictive values. BMJ, vol. 309, p. 102.

Altman, D.G.; Bland, J.M. (1994): Diagnostic tests 3: receiver operating characteristic plots. BMJ, vol. 309, p. 188.

Deeks, J.J.; Altman, D.G. (2004): Diagnostic tests 4: likelihood ratios. BMJ, vol. 329, pp. 168–169.

Bland, J.M.; Altman, D.G. (1994): One and two sided tests of significance. BMJ, vol. 309, p. 248.

Bland, J.M.; Altman, D.G. (1994): Some examples of regression towards the mean. BMJ, vol. 309, p. 780.

Altman, D.G.; Bland, J.M. (1994): Quartiles, quintiles, centiles, and other quantiles. BMJ, vol. 309, p. 996.

Bland, J.M.; Altman, D.G. (1994): Matching. BMJ, vol. 309, p. 1128.

Bland, J.M.; Altman, D.G. (1995): Multiple significance tests: the Bonferroni method. BMJ, vol. 310, p. 170.

Altman, D.G.; Bland, J.M. (1995): The normal distribution. BMJ, vol. 310, p. 298.

Bland, J.M.; Altman, D.G. (1995): Calculating correlation coefficients with repeated observations: Part 1 – correlation within subjects. BMJ, vol. 310, p. 446.

Bland, J.M.; Altman, D.G. (1995): Calculating correlation coefficients with repeated observations: Part 2 – correlation between subjects. BMJ, vol. 310, p. 633.

Altman, D.G.; Bland, J.M. (1995): Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. BMJ, vol. 311, p. 485.

Campbell, M.J.; Julious, S.A.; Altman, D.G. (1995): Estimating sample sizes for binary, ordered categorical, and continuous outcomes in two group comparisons. BMJ, vol. 311, pp. 1145–1148.

Altman, D.G.; Bland, J.M. (1996): Presentation of numerical data. BMJ, vol. 312, p. 572.

Bland, J.M.; Altman, D.G. (1996): Logarithms. BMJ, vol. 312, p. 700.

Bland, J.M.; Altman, D.G. (1996): Transforming data. BMJ, vol. 312, p. 770.

Bland, J.M.; Altman, D.G. (1996): Transformations, means, and confidence intervals. BMJ, vol. 312, p. 1079.

Bland, J.M.; Altman, D.G. (1996): The use of transformation when comparing two means. BMJ, vol. 312, p. 1153.

Altman, D.G.; Bland, J.M. (1996): Comparing several groups using analysis of variance. BMJ, vol. 312, pp. 1472–1473.

Bland, J.M.; Altman, D.G. (1996): Measurement error and correlation coefficients. BMJ, vol. 313, pp. 41–42.

Bland, J.M.; Altman, D.G. (1996): Measurement error proportional to the mean. BMJ, vol. 313, p. 106.

Bland, J.M.; Altman, D.G. (1996): Measurement error. BMJ, vol. 313, p. 744.

Altman, D.G.; Matthews, J.N.S. (1996): Interaction 1: heterogeneity of effects. BMJ, vol. 313, p. 486.

Matthews, J.N.S.; Altman, D.G. (1996): Interaction 2: compare effect sizes not P values. BMJ, vol. 313, p. 808.

Matthews, J.N.S.; Altman, D.G. (1996): Interaction 3: How to examine heterogeneity. BMJ, vol. 313, p. 862.

Altman, D.G.; Bland, J.M. (2003): Interaction revisited: the difference between two estimates. BMJ, vol. 326, p. 219.

Altman, D.G.; Bland, J.M. (1996): Detecting skewness from summary information. BMJ, vol. 313, p. 1200.

Bland, J.M.; Altman, D.G. (1997): Cronbach's alpha. BMJ, vol. 314, p. 572.

Altman, D.G.; Bland, J.M. (1997): Units of analysis. BMJ, vol. 314, p. 1874.

Bland, J.M.; Kerry, S.M. (1997): Trials randomised in clusters. BMJ, vol. 315, p. 600.

Kerry, S.M.; Bland, J.M. (1998): Analysis of a trial randomised in clusters. BMJ, vol. 316, p. 54.

Bland, J.M.; Kerry, S.M. (1998): Weighted comparison of means. BMJ, vol. 316, p. 129.

Kerry, S.M.; Bland, J.M. (1998): Sample size in cluster randomisation. BMJ, vol. 316, p. 549.

Kerry, S.M.; Bland, J.M. (1998): The intracluster correlation coefficient in cluster randomisation. BMJ, vol. 316, p. 1455.

Altman, D.G.; Bland, J.M. (1998): Generalisation and extrapolation. BMJ, vol. 317, pp. 409–410.

Altman, D.G.; Bland, J.M. (1998): Time to event (survival) data. BMJ, vol. 317, pp. 468–469.

Bland, J.M.; Altman, D.G. (1998): Bayesians and frequentists. BMJ, vol. 317, p. 1151.

Altman, D.G. (1998): Confidence intervals for the number needed to treat. BMJ, vol. 317, pp. 1309–1312.

Bland, J.M.; Altman, D.G. (1998): Survival probabilities (the Kaplan-Meier method). BMJ, vol. 317, p. 1572.

Altman, D.G.; Bland, J.M. (1999): Treatment allocation in controlled trials: why randomise? BMJ, vol. 318, p. 1209.

Altman, D.G.; Bland, J.M. (1999): Variables and parameters. BMJ, vol. 318, p. 1667.

Altman, D.G.; Bland, J.M. (1999): How to randomise. BMJ, vol. 319, pp. 703–704.

Bland, J.M.; Altman, D.G. (2000): The odds ratio. BMJ, vol. 320, p. 1468.

Day, S.J.; Altman, D.G. (2000): Blinding in clinical trials and other studies. BMJ, vol. 321, p. 504.

Sterne, J.A.C.; Smith, G.D. (2001): Sifting the evidence – what's wrong with significance tests? BMJ, vol. 322, pp. 226–231.

Altman, D.G.; Schulz, K.F. (2001): Concealing treatment allocation in randomised trials. BMJ, vol. 323, pp. 446–447.

Vickers, A.J.; Altman, D.G. (2001): Analysing controlled trials with baseline and follow up measurements. BMJ, vol. 323, pp. 1123–1124.

Bland, J.M.; Altman, D.G. (2002): Validating scales and indexes. BMJ, vol. 324, pp. 606–607.

Bland, J.M.; Altman, D.G. (2004): The logrank test. BMJ, vol. 328, p. 1073.

Altman, D.G.; Bland, J.M. (2005): Treatment allocation by minimisation. BMJ, vol. 330, p. 843.

Altman, D.G.; Bland, J.M. (2005): Standard deviations and standard errors. BMJ, vol. 331, p. 903.

Altman, D.G.; Royston, P. (2006): The cost of dichotomising continuous variables. BMJ, vol. 332, p. 1080.

Pocock, S.J. (2006): The simplest statistical test: how to check for a difference between treatments. BMJ, vol. 332, pp. 1256–1258.

Altman, D.G.; Bland, J.M. (2007): Missing data. BMJ, vol. 334, p. 424.

Altman, D.G.; Bland, J.M. (2009): Parametric v non-parametric methods for data analysis. BMJ, vol. 338, p. a3167.

Bland, J.M.; Altman, D.G. (2009): Analysis of continuous data from small samples. BMJ, vol. 338, p. a3166.

Bland, J.M.; Altman, D.G. (2011): Correlation in restricted ranges of data. BMJ, vol. 342, p. d556.

Bland, J.M.; Altman, D.G. (2011): Comparisons within randomised groups can be very misleading. BMJ, vol. 342, pp. d561–d563.

Altman, D.G.; Bland, J.M. (2011): How to obtain the confidence interval from a P value. BMJ, vol. 343, pp. d2090–d2091.

Altman, D.G.; Bland, J.M. (2011): How to obtain the P value from a confidence interval. BMJ, vol. 343, pp. d2304–d2305.

Altman, D.G.; Bland, J.M. (2011): Brackets (parentheses) in formulas. BMJ, vol. 343, pp. d570–d571.

Vickers A.J.; Altman, D.G. (2013): Missing outcomes in randomised trials. BMJ, vol. 346, pp. f3438–f3441.

Altman, D.G.; Bland, J.M. (2014): Uncertainty and sampling error. BMJ, vol. 349, pp. g7064–g7065.

Altman, D.G.; Bland, J.M. (2014): Uncertainty beyond sampling error. BMJ, vol. 349, pp. g7065–g7066.

Bland, J.M.; Altman, D.G. (2015): Bootstrap resampling methods. BMJ, vol. 350, pp. h2622–h2623.

Mansournia, M.A.; Altman, D.G. (2016): Inverse probability weighting. BMJ, vol. 352, pp. i189–i190.

Cole, T.J.; Altman, D.G. (2017): What is a percentage difference? BMJ, vol. 358, p. j3663.

Cole, T.J.; Altman, D.G. (2017): Percentage differences, symmetry, and natural logarithms. BMJ, vol. 358, pp. j3683–j3684.

Mansournia, M.A.; Altman, D.G. (2018): Population attributable fraction. BMJ, vol. 360, pp. k757–k758.


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