title: Routine statistics and clinical trials.
abstract: Different sources of routine statistics on disease occurrence, mortality and prognosis are reviewed, and an outline of how such information can be used in planning clinical trials is given. The statistician can make a valuable contribution to a trial through knowledge of this quantitative background information.
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D001699:Biometry; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009026:Mortality; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality; D012042:Registries; D012737:Sex Factors