Seminar Series: Dr. Ngianga-Bakwin Kandala
Common Statistical pitfalls in Health-related Research
Ngianga-Bakwin Kandala, PhD
Professor
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
Western University
Short Biography:
Ngianga-Bakwin Kandala is currently Professor of Biostatistics at the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics within the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, at Western University, in London, Ontario, Canada. Dr Kandala obtained his PhD in Economics/Statistics from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) in Germany in 2001 followed by a Mellon foundation fellowship at the department of Demography, University of Montreal, Canada in 2002.
He was, until recently a Professor of Biostatistics & Head of Applied Statistics Research group at Northumbria University, United Kingdom (UK) (2015-2020).
Prior to his appointment at Western University in Canada, Dr Kandala worked as a Distinguished Professor of Biostatistics at the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, where he still holds this position and he is a Visiting Professor of Health Technology Assessment at Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, UK.
Dr Kandala also worked as Head of Health Economics and Evidence Synthesis Research Unit at the Luxembourg Institute of Health, Luxembourg and was a Senior/Principal Research Fellow in Health Technology Assessment, a joint appointment with the University of Oxford and University of Warwick (2006-2015). He also worked as Professor of statistics at the University of Adger, Norway (2016-2017). Dr Kandala started his career in academia in 2003 as a researcher at the Statistical Institute, University of Southampton, UK and worked in several other academic positions in various academic institutions including King’s College London (Department of HIV/GU Medicine), UK, the University of Botswana and the University of Lagos, Nigeria.
Over 20 years, his main research interests are in capacity building in Biostatistics in Africa, and Bayesian statistical methods and their application to epidemiology and global health including maternal and child health both in the developing countries and command economies, using large scale household data. Dr Kandala has published widely in peer review journals in both the field of Statistics and health in diverse populations. His three recent books are titled (1) ‘Advance Techniques in modelling Maternal and child health in Africa’, (2) ‘Female Mutilation around the World: Analysis of Medical Aspects, Law and Practice (2018) with Springer Nature and (3) Statistical Modelling of Complex correlated and clustered data using Household surveys in Africa (2019) with Nova Science Publishers.
Abstract:
The analysis of health-related samples, population samples, and controlled trials is typically subjected to rigorous statistical review. This fact is understandable, given that the results of clinical investigation will often be used to inform patient care or clinical decision making.
One would not want to predicate patient advice on research findings that are not correctly interpreted or valid. For this reason, most major journals publishing health related research include statistical reviews as a standard component of manuscript evaluation for publication.
Health related data, regardless of publication venue, are often subject to rather uniform principles of review.
In this talk, we focused on common sources of confusion and errors in the analysis and interpretation of health-related studies. The issues addressed are seen repeatedly in the authors’ editorial experience, and we hope this overview will serve as a guide for those who may submit their studies to journals for publication. More specially, we will be discussing issues related to sample size and power, study design, data analysis, and presentation of results.
Keywords:
Cluster randomization trials, prospective epidemiological studies, evidence synthesis, capacity building in biostatistics in Africa
Date: Friday, October 11th
Time: 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm
Location: PHFM 3015 (Western Centre for Public Health and Family Medicine) or Zoom (link may be requested at EpiBio@uwo.ca)
