Lies, lies, lies and statistics

Here's a good read about Statistics' potentials --http://my.execpc.com/~helberg/pitfalls/

SAS vs SPSS vs STATA

As a biostatistician, I've always been asked by students, residents, consultants which statistical software is the best. Unfortunately, i don't have any definite straight answer for that question. It is the same thing with any question bothering us about our life... before we can answer, or decide, we have to weigh different factors. Top 3 considerations? Read on...

1. Why do you need a statistical software? Main purpose?

If you are just a college student and you'll just be using the software for the basic statistics course, then you might not need to buy expensive licenses (yes they are very costly), there are a lot of free online statistical calculators that one can use for simple statistical analysis. Of course, it would be a different story, if you have a statistical consulting firm, you might need more than one statistical software since each software has their own unique tools for different situations. In the academics, SAS, SPSS, and STATA are very well accepted and recognized. In the pharmaceutical industry, in some countries such as the Philippines, they require SAS for clinical trials.

2. Who is the end-user?

Some softwares may require additional training for new users. SAS is a software that is heavy on programming, while SPSS has an interface that is more user-friendly.

3. Budget?

I think, SAS License is the most expensive of the three (at least here in the Philippines), followed by SPSS, and then STATA.

If there is no budget at all, and one is in health research -- then EPI-INFO or OPEN-EPI is the best option. They are actually freewares :)

Link for EPI-INFO: http://www.cdc.gov/EpiInfo/

Link for OPEN-EPI: http://www.openepi.com/Menu/OpenEpiMenu.htm

Readers! !!

I looked at the visitor's map.. and guess what -- i had some visitors ... am not sure though if they find the blog useful, amusing? ... he he he :) This map really made my day, and somehow, someway it also motivated me to continue blogging... Maybe someday i'll write more about my job and provide some useful links and articles as well. :)

Day without work!

Oh, am at work all right. 50 minutes to go before going home and still haven't done anything related to work. There are no residents, students asking, consulting most probably because it is friday therefore they are in vacation mood also. I've been reading a lot of food blogs these past couple of days. I find it entertaining. SOme food blogs really are complete, with pictures for every step in the cooking procedure. Which is very helpful to very amateur cooks like me. I told my sister that i plan to have a blog on cooking, and she told me, there are a lot of them already, so i should not bother at all. Well, she's right, so, this blog will stay as it is, at the moment. Will think of other options... :)