Teaching Statistics Using Stata Software

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Teaching Statistics Using Stata Software

• Susan Hailpern BSN MPH MS
• Department of Epidemiology and Population Health
• Albert Einstein College of Medicine
• Bronx, New York

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Albert Einstein College of Medicine Clinical
Research Training Program

• Clinical Research Training program (CRTP) began
  in 1998
• Program funded by the NIH under Clinical Research
  Curriculum Award Program

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Program Components

• CRTP is a 2 year program consisting of two
  complementary components
• Didactic curriculum with emphasis on
  epidemiology, biostatistics, study design,
  computer methods, and research ethics
• Mentored experience in clinical research leading
  to masters thesis

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Program Description

• Program provides future investigators
  (physicians) with basic and applied knowledge in
  core disciplines of clinical investigation
• Biostatistics
• Epidemiology
• Students learn how to
• design clinical research studies
• ensure that high ethical standards are met
• organize study team
• apply and obtain funding
• collect, manage and analyze data
• report results

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Statistical Software

• SPSS
• SPSS has been used since the start of CRTP
• Pull-down menus were thought to be easy to use
  and learn
• Students were easily successful in using SPSS
  software and obtaining statistical results
• As students progressed in statistical analyses
  and clinical research, SPSS was found to be too
  limited in scope
• Alternative software was sought

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Statistical Software

• STATA (and Stat/Transfer v.7)
• Stata was taught in the CRTP for first time in
  Summer 04 using Version 8
• Stata was chosen because
• It has an excellent reputation
• It is easy to use
• Addition of new pull-down menus (version 8) was
  attractive feature and was thought to make
  learning software easier for students

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Statistical Software

• STATA (continued)
• It has substantially wider range of procedures
  and options than SPSS
• Multinomial and ordinal logistic regressions
• Frailty models for multivariate survival analysis
  (semi-parametric and parametric)
• Immediate commands

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Teaching Stata

• Interesting challenge instructors teaching
  statistics with Stata come from very different
  backgrounds
• Senior instructor has had extensive experience
  using SPSS and is a relative newcomer to Stata.
• Other instructor has had extensive experience
  using Stata, but with expertise in writing Stata
  programs (unfamiliar with using pull-down menus
  in version 8).

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Teaching Stata

• Students were asked to install software prior to
  first class
• All students used Windows 98, 2000, or XP
• All had some computer experience
• Brief introduction to the software was
  distributed prior to first class
• Description of the windows
• Variable storage types
• Most importantly how to get Help!

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Teaching Stata First Class

• Stata Structure
• Windows Data Editor, Results, Review,
  Variables, Command, Viewer
• Menus and Syntax
• Course was taught primarily using pull-down menus
• Data File
• Data structure Files, Variables, Subjects
• Variable Elements Name, Type, Format, Label,
  Values (labels), Missing
• Descriptive Statistics

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Teaching Stata Second Class

• Modifying Variables and Subsets and Conditions
• Creating new variables using gen and replace
• Functions
• Recoding recode, gen, encode, decode
• if , in, sort, drop, keep, save
• Comparison of means and medians one and two
  sample
• Comparing means and medians for gt2 groups oneway
  anova and Kruskal-Wallis
• Comparing categorical data 2x2, 2x k tables,
  ordered categories, RR and OR

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Teaching Stata

• Additional weekly lab session was added
• Review
• Learn additional nice features of Stata
• Immediate commands
• Date functions
• Do file
• Graphing

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Teaching Stata Third Class

• File handling
• use, clear, importing files
• merge
• update
• append
• collapse, reshape
• Correlation Linear Regression

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Teaching Stata Fourth Class

• Multivariate Analyses
• Multiple Linear Regression
• Two-way Anova
• Interpreting the outputs

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Teaching Stata Fifth Class

• Statistical power and sample size using NCSS/PASS
  software
• Review

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Success

• Stata statistical software was easy to teach
• At the end of 6 week summer session students were
  successful in learning and using Stata

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Failures

• None!

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Recommendations for Next Year

• Use Stata for power and sample size calculations
• Continue to teach Stata software
• This was a terrific success!

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Interesting Problems

• Largest problem encountered was communicating
  with mentors and statisticians unfamiliar with
  Stata

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Student Wishes and Grumbles

• THE BIG GRUMBLE
• Windows do not hang together
• Windows were all over the screen
• Windows sometimes got lost

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Student Wishes and Grumbles

• Wishes - Students would like
• Un-do button
• Ability to order variables as desired, and then
  return to original ordering
• Description of statistical tests
• As in SPSS where placing the cursor over the test
  will give a brief description of the statistical
  test
• Data window to remain open while running
  commands (as in SPSS)

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Any Questions?