SPSS does have the most friendly menu system, but it is a long way from appropriate to public health. Art Kendall does not mention Stata that also has a nice menu system but has vastly more capabilities for public health in terms of epidemiological methods and limited dependent variables. SAS has the steepest learning curve, but also has the most overall capabilities. SPSS is also broken into a series of modules and unless your university can afford all of the modules you are missing major components such as missing values or complex surveys.
Version 13 of SPSS may add more capability to its complex survey capabilities but if you want to do more than a cross tab or estimate means, and you have samples that are not strictly random, then SPSS is simply inappropriate. The syntax of SPSS is hardly easy to read and the syntax generated by the menu system includes a huge amount of unnecessary but confusing code. Also, the various procedures use different syntax reflecting many authors who were uncoordinated. If you've seen syntax for SPSS, you should look at a modern program such as Stata. To do multiple OLS regression of y on x1 x2 x3 and x4 you would enter regress y x1 x2 x3 x4. To do a logistic regression you would enter logit y x1 x2 x3 x4. To do a multinomial logistic regression you would enter mlogit y x1 x2 x3 x4. To do a zero inflated Poisson regresion you would enter zip y x1 x2 x3 x4. ETC.! SPSS is a static program that is revised every couple years with most revisions going into gee wiz graphs for marketing. It lags behind several competitors in integrating new statistical procedures. Stata is updated monthly (command: update all) and has many powerful user contributed procedures. Alan Acock ----- Original Message ----- From: "Art Kendall" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 2004 6:28 AM Subject: Re: software for public health students | I have been using a variety of packages on different platforms since | 1970. I would recommend having SPSS be your _primary_ package. It has | the best human factors aspects of all the packages I have seen. The GUI | is an excellent way to to get the first cut at the syntax. It is very | readable so this cuts coding time, facilitates getting help, facilitates | quality assurance review, and facilitates maintenance. | Be sure they know about the tutorials, case studies, documentation, and | statistics coach. | | wrt cost, purchase is the smallest portion of total cost. | SPSS is excellent at what takes the vast majority of the time, getting | the data ready for analysis. Time of the user, helpers, QA reviewers, etc. | | No package can do everything. So be sure that they learn that there are | many ways to output the data on those occasions when another package is | called for for a particular procedure. Since the way to read SPSS | system files is freely available, some other packages, e.g., SUDAAN, | will directly read SPSS files. | | <going beyond original question.> | | To help their learning and to prepare them for the world of work, have | them play the role of QA reviewer for each other. Among other things, | this will bring home the the lessons that there is more than one way to | accomplish a goal and that readability of the syntax they write is a | major benefit to themselves and to others. | | Another important thing for them to learn is to always be able to go | back and redo the process. As they develop their skills in programming | and stat and because of the suggestions of supervisors and quality | reviewers the syntax will be continuously improved. | | Disclosure. | I am a social psychologist. I also retired as sr math stat at the US | GAO, so I put a great deal of emphasis on 1) the human factors both | cognitive and group (readability, consistency of approach, growth of | understanding etc.), 2). QA (e.g. continuous improvement; communication | with others for review, data sharing, and maintenance; etc.), and 3) the | total cost of use rather than just the purchase price. | | Art | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | Social Research Consultants | University Park, MD USA | (301) 864-5570 | | | jj diamond wrote: | > i am on the faculty at a medical school in philadelphia. i also have | > an appointment in the graduate school wherein sits our masters in | > public health program. a group has been putting together a lab course | > that will complement the statistics classes. in the lab, we want to | > teach the students how to use software that will - among other things | > - allow them to do calculations. we have had lots of discussions | > about which package to use, as well as larger discussions about which | > package would give the students something they can put on their CV | > when they look for jobs. there are differences of opinion in our | > group about which package should be used. part of the problem is | > trying to weigh ease of use, cost, CV enhancement, etc. | > | > so, to my question, and thanks for any feedback. among SAS, SPSS and | > STATA (alphabetic order), which one do you all think is called for the | > most among graduates with masters degrees. as i said, the students | > are in public health. they are not stat majors but many are likely to | > get jobs where data are collected and analyzed. none will even | > identify themselves as "power users." but we know that some are | > looking at jobs that ask for software capabilities. | > | > sorry to ramble, and i've probably left off something key. | > nonetheless, if you have ideas to share, i'd really love to hear them. | > thanks very much to all. | | . | . | ================================================================= | Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the | problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: | . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . | ================================================================= . . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
