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WELCOME!

Start thinking about these questions…

1. What is statistical literacy? 2. Who should have it?

Breakout Session 3A

BIOSTATISTICAL LITERACY:

What is it, and how can we teach it?

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BIOSTATISTICAL LITERACY: �What is it, and how can we teach it?

Featuring:

Michael Jiroutek

Laura Le

Steve Foti

V.N. Vimal Rao

USCOTS 2023

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GOAL of Breakout Session

​

To promote a course that

develops students’ abilities to

read, interpret, and evaluate

evidence from data.

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Steve Foti

Michael

Jiroutek

Laura Le

Class Format:

In-person / online

V.N. Vimal Rao

20

90

Class Size:

to

Student Background:

  • Public Health grad students
  • Health Science professionals (e.g., DNP, DVM, Dentists)

Class Format:

In-person / online

Class Size:

to

Student Background:

  • Clinical research majors (undergrads, grads)

Class Format:

Hybrid

Class Size:

Student Background:

  • Public Health grad students
  • Health Science professionals (e.g., Dentists, DNP, DVM)

Class Format:

Online

25

Class Size:

to

Student Background:

  • Public Health undergrad students
  • Active duty military

~35

8

30

10

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Steve Foti

Michael

Jiroutek

Laura Le

Class Format:

In-person / online

V.N. Vimal Rao

20

90

Class Size:

to

Student Background:

  • Public Health grad students
  • Health Science professionals (e.g., DNP, DVM, Dentists)

Class Format:

In-person / online

Class Size:

to

Student Background:

  • Clinical research majors (undergrads, grads)

Class Format:

Hybrid

Class Size:

Student Background:

  • Public Health grad students
  • Health Science professionals (e.g., Dentists, DNP, DVM)

Class Format:

Online

25

Class Size:

to

Student Background:

  • Public Health undergrad students
  • Active duty military

~35

8

30

10

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Steve Foti

Michael

Jiroutek

Laura Le

Class Format:

In-person / online

V.N. Vimal Rao

20

90

Class Size:

to

Student Background:

  • Public Health grad students
  • Health Science professionals (e.g., DNP, DVM, Dentists)

Class Format:

In-person / online

Class Size:

to

Student Background:

  • Clinical research majors (undergrads, grads)

Class Format:

Hybrid

Class Size:

Student Background:

  • Public Health grad students
  • Health Science professionals (e.g., Dentists, DNP, DVM)

Class Format:

Online

25

Class Size:

to

Student Background:

  • Public Health undergrad students
  • Active duty military

~35

8

30

10

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Steve Foti

Michael

Jiroutek

Laura Le

Class Format:

In-person / online

V.N. Vimal Rao

20

90

Class Size:

to

Student Background:

  • Public Health grad students
  • Health Science professionals (e.g., DNP, DVM, Dentists)

Class Format:

In-person / online

Class Size:

to

Student Background:

  • Clinical research majors (undergrads, grads)

Class Format:

Hybrid

Class Size:

Student Background:

  • Public Health grad students
  • Health Science professionals (e.g., Dentists, DNP, DVM)

Class Format:

Online

25

Class Size:

to

Student Background:

  • Public Health undergrad students
  • Active duty military

~35

8

30

10

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What is statistical literacy? Who should have it?

    • Discuss it in small groups.
    • Large group discussion.

Instructions:

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What is statistical literacy? Who should have it?

Definition (Ziegler & Garfield, 2018):

​

​

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What is statistical literacy? Who should have it?

Definition (Ziegler & Garfield, 2018):

​

“The ability to read, understand, and communicate statistical information. This type of statistical information that is relevant for statistical literacy (e.g., graphical representations, descriptive statistics, inferential statistics) is encountered in daily life, such as in a media article, and involves real contexts”.

​

​

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What is statistical literacy? Who should have it?

Definition (Ziegler & Garfield, 2018):

​

“The ability to read, understand, and communicate statistical information. This type of statistical information that is relevant for statistical literacy (e.g., graphical representations, descriptive statistics, inferential statistics) is encountered in daily life, such as in a media article, and involves real contexts”.

​

Who: Anyone who consumes media (Everyone!)

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Identifying the Gaps

What’s missing?

​

​

​

​

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Identifying the Gaps

What’s missing?

​

  • Necessary skills, knowledge, and ability for graduate students who will be data consumers

​

​

​

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Identifying the Gaps

What’s missing?

​

  • Necessary skills, knowledge, and ability for graduate students who will be data consumers

​

​

What’s needed?

​

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Identifying the Gaps

What’s missing?

​

  • Necessary skills, knowledge, and ability for graduate students who will be data consumers

​

​

What’s needed?

  • To read, interpret, and evaluate statistical results in peer-reviewed papers and abstracts

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What is biostatistical literacy? Who should have it?

Definition: “The ability to read, understand, and communicate statistical information. This type of statistical information that is relevant for statistical literacy (e.g., graphical representations, descriptive statistics, inferential statistics) is encountered in daily life, such as in a media article, and involves real contexts”

​

(Ziegler & Garfield, 2018)

​

​

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What is biostatistical literacy? Who should have it?

Definition: “The ability to read, understand, and communicate biostatistical information. This type of statistical information that is relevant for biostatistical literacy (e.g., graphical representations, descriptive statistics, inferential statistics) is encountered in daily life, such as in a media article, and involves real contexts”

​

​

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What is biostatistical literacy? Who should have it?

Definition: “The ability to read, understand, and communicate biostatistical information. This type of statistical information that is relevant for biostatistical literacy (e.g., graphical representations, descriptive statistics, inferential statistics, and study design) is encountered in daily life, such as in a media article, and involves real contexts”

​

​

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What is biostatistical literacy? Who should have it?

Definition: “The ability to read, understand, and communicate biostatistical information. This type of statistical information that is relevant for biostatistical literacy (e.g., graphical representations, descriptive statistics, inferential statistics, and study design) is encountered in research and scholarship, such as in academic journals and conferences, and involves real contexts”

​

​

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What is biostatistical literacy? Who should have it?

Definition: “The ability to read, understand, and communicate biostatistical information. This type of statistical information that is relevant for biostatistical literacy (e.g., graphical representations, descriptive statistics, inferential statistics, and study design) is encountered in research and scholarship, such as in academic journals and conferences, and involves real contexts”

​

Who: Anyone who professionally consumes health-related information

​

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Course Objective

Biostatistical Literacy has the primary goal of developing students’ ability to read and interpret statistical results in the primary literature of their specific scientific field of interest.

Includes

    • Critically reading research articles
    • Interpreting results

Does Not Include

    • Calculations (VERY minimal)
    • Statistical programming software (No!)

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What is Biostatistics?

Branch of statistics that deals with data from biology, public health, Medicine, and other health sciences.

​

Examples:

•Identifying risk factors associated with a disease or condition

•Evaluating the effectiveness of interventions on a disease or condition

•Predicting disease or condition outcomes based on risk factors

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Overview of Biostatistical Literacy Course

CI for a Mean

Summarizing Continuous Variables

CI for a Proportion

Intro to Survival Data

Intro to Biostatistics

Communicating Risk

Tests for Comparing Means/Hazards

Tests for Comparing Risks/Odds

Challenges in Statistics

Hypothesis Testing

Logistic and Proportional Hazards Regression

Multiple Linear Regression

Correlation & Regression

ANOVA

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Overview of Biostatistical Literacy Course

Preparation

Read textbook and view online presentations

Complete Readiness Quiz

Active Learning

Concept Activity & Collaborative Key

Literature Activity & Collaborative Key

Assessment

Complete End-of-Unit Assessment

Early in Unit

Middle of Unit

End of Unit

UNIT TIMELINE

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Introduction to Survival Data

Time to put on your student hat!

​

​

Intro to Survival Data

Intro to Biostatistics

Preparation

Read textbook and view online presentations

Complete Readiness Quiz

Active Learning

Concept Activity

Literature Activity

Assessment

Complete End-of-Unit Quiz

Early in Unit

Middle of Unit

End of Unit

Collaborative Keys

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QUICK Tutorial on Survival Data

Definition: Measurements [time duration and event (Y/N)] based on following a participant over time until a specified event is observed.

​

Alternative terminology: Time-to-event data

​

Examples:

  • Time from cancer diagnosis until death

​

  • Time from starting a quit-smoking program until person resumes smoking

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  • Time from freshman orientation until graduation

​

  • Time to tenure for faculty

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QUICK Tutorial on Survival Data:

Censored Data/Observations

Participant

Time from Randomization

0

3

2

1

X

CVD Death

O

4

O

O

Cancer Death

Lost to Follow-up

Study Closure

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Concept Activity

Task:

  • Work with your neighbor(s) and complete the modified Concept Activity activity.
    • Remember to have your student hat on!

Goal: To understand how to properly account for censoring when estimating survival and what a Kaplan-Meier curve tells you.

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Concept Activity Wrap-up

  • What is the event of interest?
  • What are some ways we can summarize or describe survival data?
  • Why is it important to include the censored data when carrying out survival data analysis?
  • Suppose your colleague needs help interpreting a Kaplan-Meier curve. How might you describe the characteristics and features of the curve?
  • Think of an example in your field of a time-to-event situation. Be sure to specify what the event is.

Teaching tip:

Wrapping up activities is key to an active learning classroom.

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Literature Activity

Goal: To practice interpreting the results of survival analyses in the literature.

Task:

  • Work with your neighbor(s) and complete the modified Literature Activity activity.
    • Abstract and some of the answers (in italics) have been provided to you. Fill in the answers to the questions that are bolded.
    • Remember to have your student hat on!

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Literature Activity Wrap-Up

  • What is the purpose of random assignment?
  • (Question 13) Do you think the comparison that the researchers did made sense or was appropriate? Why do you think they made this comparison?
  • What are some of the strengths/limitations about the article (based on the abstract)?
  • Do you think the starting time made sense for this study? What other starting times might have been considered?
  • Are there other things that should be in the article or results, or you would have liked to see?

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Conclusions

Biostatistical Literacy course offers a (flexible) approach for teaching students how to read and interpret statistical results in the research literature.

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​

​

Different disciplines (e.g., swap out an article/context but use similar questions)

Course formats (in-person, hybrid, fully online)

Student populations

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References

Ziegler, L., & Garfield, J. (2018). Developing a statistical literacy assessment for the modern introductory statistics course. Statistics Education Research Journal, 17(2), 161-178.

Brearley, A. M., Rott, K. W., & Le, L. J. (2023). A biostatistical literacy course: Teaching medical and public health professionals to read and interpret statistics in the published Literature. Journal of Statistics and Data Science Education.

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Thank You!

RaoVNV.github.io/BiostatLiteracyProject

Michael R. Jiroutek

jiroutekm@campbell.edu

Laura Le

free0312@umn.edu

Steve Foti

fotisj@ufl.edu

V.N. Vimal Rao

@RaoVNV

USCOTS 2023