Definition of
biostatistics
The biostatistics It is a scientific discipline that deals with the application of statistical analysis to different issues related to the biology. It can be said that biostatistics is an area or a specialization of the statisticsthe science dedicated to the quantitative study of all kinds of variables.
at the beginning of XIX century the practice of appealing to mathematical methods for the quantification of patient variables began to expand. Tuberculosis, for example, is a disease that began to be studied in depth from mathematical data.
The medicineIn this way, he incorporated biostatistics into his studies to obtain data on infections, epidemics, etc. The analysis of the statistics registered by doctors and nurses, little by little, became very important for the generation of useful information in treatments and in prevention campaigns.
- Biostatistics, public health and ecology
- Pierre Charles-Alexandre Louis, a pioneer
- Other theoretical contributions to biostatistics
- Modeling and reasoning
- Related Topics Tree
Biostatistics, public health and ecology
Biostatistics can be useful in various fields of science. public health. Analyzing the weight recorded by adolescents between the ages of 15 and 18, to cite one possibility, can diagnose an obesity epidemic or warn of a high rate of malnutrition. In the sector of epidemiologybiostatistics helps to detect how an epidemic is advancing or receding, in which places prevention is proving more effective or where more resources need to be sent to reverse a negative trend.
The ecology You can also make use of biostatistics to record pollution levels and other indicators that directly affect the lives of people, animals, plants and other living beings.
It can help you: Tertiary prevention
Pierre Charles-Alexandre Louis, a pioneer
The first scientist to use mathematical methods to analyze data of their patients and their respective diseases was Pierre Charles-Alexandre Louisa French physician born in the year 1787. As mentioned in a previous paragraph, the first application of biostatistics was focused on a study that Louis conducted on tuberculosis in his work entitled numerical methodwhich was of great influence for the doctors that followed him.
His students and disciples, for their part, took advantage of his discoveries to improve and expand the methods used so far and carry his legacy to the inevitable evolution. His teachings continued to inspire several generations of scientists, to the point that a century later they could be seen in the maps and epidemiological analyzes carried out by the Frenchman Louis René Villermé and the Englishman William Farr.
See also: Political map
Other theoretical contributions to biostatistics
In 1812, on the other hand, a French mathematician and astronomer named Pierre Simon Laplace published a treatise on the analytical theory of probability that supported the importance of biostatistics in solving medical problems.
One of the most relevant concepts in this context is the modern evolutionary synthesisalso called neodarwinian synthesis either new synthesis, among other names. It is about the fusion of the theory of evolution of Charles Darwin and the genetics of the Augustinian Catholic monk Gregor Johann Mendelauthor of the mendel’s lawswhich are the foundations of the inheritance genetics.
Continue on: Inheritance
Modeling and reasoning
For the modern synthesis of evolution, two elements of great importance were the modeling and reasoning of biostatistics, which gave rise to its foundation. After Mendel’s work was rediscovered, a marked confrontation took place between his followers and the so-called biometric around the resolution of problems related to the understanding of the relationship between Darwinism and genetics.
Ronald Fisher, JBS Haldane and Sewall G. Wright, three renowned statisticians, were responsible for putting an end to this conflict during the 1930s. At that time, they presented biostatistics as one of the fundamental branches of the new synthesis.
See also: Abstract reasoning