Copyright © 2020 pepgra. All rights reserved 1

Role of Biostatistician and Biostatistical Programming in Epidemiological

Studies

Dr. Nancy Agens, Head,

Technical Operations, Pepgra

pepgrahealthcare@gmail.com

In brief

Health data contains important

information that can help save lives and

cro biostatistics services provide

information to support public health

initiatives. Biostatisticians and

biostatistical programming services are

highly sought after to make sense of the

data available from studies on public

health.

Keywords

Epidemiology biostatistical service,

Statistical Programming Services,

Clinical biostatistics services, Biostatistics

services

I. EPIDEMIOLOGY

Epidemiology is a branch of

medicine that deals with the study of

disease in population, the incidence,

distribution, and ways to control the

same.Centres of disease control and

prevention (CDC) explains epidemiology

as a scientific and systematic data-driven

study of the distribution and determinants

of health-related states and events in

specific populations and application of the

same information for control of health

problems.iSo, we see that epidemiology

consists of three aspects: -

1. Identification of disease patterns in a

population,

2. Identify causes or associated

conditions and

3. Provide data for prevention, control,

and treatment of the health condition.

II. BIOSTATISTICS

Biostatistical analysis is the science

and art of dealing with variation in data to

get reliable results and conclusions.

Application of statistics to any field of

medicine or health is biostatistics.ii

III. BIOSTATISTICS IN

EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDIES

Epidemiological studies are heavily

dependent on biostatistics.

Epidemiological statistical services

convert data and information got from

epidemiological studies, analyseit, and

convert it into forms that help solve issues

related to public health. Biostatistical

services use quantitative methods to

combine the two disciplines of

epidemiology and biostatistics.iii

How do we know the risk factors

associated with heart disease? How did we

conclude that there is no one cause for this

but a combination of genetic and lifestyle

factors that increase the risk to have a

coronary event? This understanding is

thanks to the famous Framingham Heart

Study which is still underway. Here, over

5000 volunteers agreed to be followed up

for several decades to help public health

workers understand the risk factors

associated with heart disease.

As the world is struggling today to

understand and curtail the pandemic of

Covid-19, the role of epidemiology in

public health has never been clearer.

Biostatisticians are using statistics to

predict how the pandemic will behave,

spread, and the mortality rate.

Copyright © 2020 pepgra. All rights reserved 2

Thus, epidemiology and biostatistics are

the basic sciences of public health.

IV. STEPS IN EPIDEMIOLOGICAL

BIOSTATISTICS

Steps involved includeiv

: -

1. Address a public health question –

generate a hypothesis

A hypothesis in

epidemiology is an

assumption based on

o Scientific rationale

o Observation or anecdotal

evidence

o Results of prior studies

2. Conduct a study –

o Survey – studies extend of

health condition in defined

population

o Surveillance – Monitors or

detects health condition. It

can be done actively or

passively.

o Observational – study the

association between an

exposure and a health

condition. Here, there is a

natural distribution of the

control and study group.

o Experimental – study

involving exposure,

treatment, and disease

outcome.

3. Collect data – numerical facts and

figures, observations that are

obtained from the investigation.

Data must be reliable and accurate

for reliable and significant

outcomes.

4. Describe the observations / data –

by descriptive statistical methods,

the data is assessed descriptively

and organised in graphs, tables, and

other summary methods.

5. Assess strength of evidence for or

against the hypothesis – Inferential

statistics does a confirmatory data

analysis. The strength of evidence

is assessed, comparisons are made

with previous studies and

predictions are made. It also

provides future questions and areas

of future research.

6. Make recommendations based on

inferences – The study proves or

disproves or is inconclusive on the

hypothesis. The study may be

published in peer-review

publication or may be spread by

any other suitable medium of

communication. The outcome may

be a regulatory or policy change in

handling a health condition or a

change in behaviour of the people.

Epidemiology and biostatistics

services together provide valuable inputs

on study design, disease modelling,

sampling, surveillance, analysis, risk

stratification, identification of vulnerable

populations and prevention, control, and

treatment of the health condition in the

population. Biostatistics helps in designing

study methodology, data models that are

epidemiologically relevant to make

information and data more informative by

adequate analysis.v

V. BIOSTATISTICAL TOOLS

Most studies use observational and

descriptive statistics in the form of tables

and graphs are most used. There are

several biostatistical computerised tools

that are available today that make the

process automated. Of these, SAS and

STATA are the most used packages. Other

packages used are SUDAAN, SPSS, R,

ARCGIS, HLM, IVEWARE, BUGS etc.

Logistic regression is the most common

classical statistical technique used. vi

VI. BIOSTATISTICIANS

Biostatisticians are the ones

running the show for Statistical

Programming Services. They usually have

a master’s degree or a doctorate in

statistics, some also have a degree in

Copyright © 2020 pepgra. All rights reserved 2

public health. They often have a

background in mathematics or computer

science. They are the ones who help make

sense of the complex data that comes out

of the study. They help link the cause and

effect and solve the mystery of causation

vis-à-vis association between the exposure

and disease condition.

VII. FUTURE SCOPES

Biostatistics is the backbone to

study epidemiology public health, and it

needs to be included adequately in medical

curriculum. Medical professionals need to

understand biostatistical tools better to be

able to interpret and use public health

statistics in their practice. Several courses

in statistical methods are available online

for working medical professionals seeking

additional training.

VIII. CONCLUSION

Epidemiology and biostatistics are

two sides of the same coin and together

they form the backbone of the public

health information system. Strong

biostatistical support turns scientific data

into information that help epidemiologists

and governments plan strong public health

policies.

REFERENCES

iPark K. Textbook of preventive and social medicine.

21st ed. BanarasidasBhanot; 2011. iiMahajan BK. Methods in biostatistics. 7th ed. New

Delhi: Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers; 2010. iiiBhuyan, Dhrubajyoti&Dua, Neha & Kothari, Tejal.

(2015). Epidemiology and biostatistics: Fundamentals of

research methodology. Open Journal of Psychiatry &

Allied Sciences. 7. 10.5958/2394-2061.2015.00022.1. ivSundaram KR, Dwivedi SN, Sreenivas V. Medical

statistics principles and methods. New Delhi: BI

Publications; 2010. vVilleneuve, P.J., Paradis, G. &Muhajarine, N. Always

better together: the Canadian Journal of Public

Health and the Canadian Society for Epidemiology and

Biostatistics. Can J Public Health 111, 305–307 (2020).

https://doi.org/10.17269/s41997-020-00362-x viHayat, M. J., Powell, A., Johnson, T., &Cadwell, B. L.

(2017). Statistical methods used in the public health

literature and implications for training of public health

professionals. PloS one, 12(6), e0179032.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0179032