Section outline

  • Sample Size, P-Values and Confidence Intervals

    An introduction to the concepts and information needed to estimate sample sizes for various types of studies. It includes suggestions for making more affordably sized studies.

    Faculty: Steve Cummings

    Faculty Bio: Steve is a UCSF-trained general internist who led the UCSF Division of General Internal Medicine for a decade. He has spent almost 40 years designing, conducting, and teaching about clinical research.  He founded and directs the S.F. Coordinating Center that has designed, led, and conducted many large multicenter clinical trials and cohort studies.  He co-founded the Clinical Research Training program and co-authors Designing Clinical Research.  He is an Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology and Biostatistics at UCSF and also Senior Scientist at the CPMC Research Institute.  Steve’s own research has focused mainly on predicting and preventing fractures and understanding the biological basis of aging.  He has published over 500 peer-reviewed papers and has received numerous awards for his research in osteoporosis and women’s health, and was elected to the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine) for his work in clinical research in general and women’s health in particular.

    • Lecture Slides:

    • Lecture 3 Slides File

    • Lecture Audio/Video Recording (Access restricted to registered students):

    • Lecture 3, Part 1 (Steve Cummings) Media Resource
      Not available unless: You belong to a group in Registered Students Only
    • Lecture 3, Part 2 (Steve Cummings) Media Resource
      Not available unless: You belong to a group in Registered Students Only
    • Lecture 3, Part 3 (Steve Cummings) Media Resource
      Not available unless: You belong to a group in Registered Students Only
    • How do we know what we know? (Tom Newman) Media Resource
      Not available unless: You belong to a group in Registered Students Only

    • Large Group Discussion (Access restricted to registered students): Brief formal review of lecture followed by question and answer discussion. Recorded lecture should be viewed prior to this session.

    • Lecture 3 Discussion Recording Media Resource
      Not available unless: You belong to a group in Registered Students Only

    • Assignment 3:

    • Assignment 3 File
    • Assignment 3 Example File

    • Materials:

    • SD for analyzing change in a continuous variable File
    • Bacchetti 2010: Current sample size conventions: Flaws, harms and alternatives File
      Not available unless: Your ID number contains 02
    • Statistical Interpretation of Data (Chapter from Goldman Textbook of Medicine, 24th ed, by Tom and Chuck). Note material in green is included only in the online text, hence it is not what is most important. File
      Not available unless: Your ID number contains 02
    • Sample-size.net (from UCSF's CTSI) URL