Book excerpt: This long awaited second edition of this bestseller continues toprovide a comprehensive, user friendly, down-to-earth guide toelementary statistics. The book presents a detailed account ofthe most important procedures for the analysis of data, from thecalculation of simple proportions, to a variety of statisticaltests, and the use of regression models for modeling of clinicaloutcomes. The level of mathematics is kept to a minimum to make thematerial easily accessible to the novice, and a multitude ofillustrative cases are included in every chapter, drawn from thecurrent research literature. The new edition has beencompletely revised and updated and includes new chapters on basicquantitative methods, measuring survival, measurement scales,diagnostic testing, bayesian methods, meta-analysis and systematicreviews. "... After years of trying and failing, this is the only book onstatistics that i have managed to read and understand" - NaveedKirmani, Surgical Registrar, South London Healthcare HHS Trust,UK