Practice More Questions From: Week 5 Graded Quiz
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This and the following questions pertains to this article (the same paper used in a previous graded quiz) : Full article link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4514907/ In this paper the authors were concerned about the outcome of patients admitted with severe hospital acquired pneumonia. This refers to severe bacterial infection of the lungs. The patients were infected whilst in hospital. Bacteria that exist in the hospital environment are usually more difficult to treat due to resistance of the bacteria to antibiotics. Patients who contract hospital acquired bacterial infections may have a worse outcome than those who contract bacterial infection in the community (outside the hospital). These patients are in hospital for a specific medical reason, which usually means that their ability to fight infection might be compromised. Hospital-acquired bacteria can also be more virulent. It is this combination of a weakened immune system and aggressive, difficult to treat bacteria that lead to a worse outcome.In the healthcare setting pertaining to this research, a decision was made to change the standard antibiotic therapy for the treatment of patients with severe hospital-acquired pneumonia. These are difficult decisions to make due to the fact that it may directly impact the wellbeing of patients. Consider the Materials and methods section. What type of test was used to compare continuous data types?
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Which of the following was assumed when deciding to use Student’s t-test as one of the statistical analysis?.
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Under the assumptions of a normal distribution of the required variable in the population from which a sample of participants are taken (as well as all other assumptions), which parametric test would be appropriate if the study design included self-controls?
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If the investigators added a third group, using yet another antibiotic regime and this new group still met the criteria for the use of parametric tests, which test should be used instead of Student’s t-test?
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Consider the question above (the investigators adding a third group, using yet another antibiotic regime). Which would be an appropriate test for comparing numerical data point values if the assumptions for the use of a parametric test are not met?
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The study mentioned above found no statistical difference between the mean ages of the two antibiotic groups (table 1 on page 1695). The mean age of the newer antibiotic group (piperacillin/tazobactam) was 79 years and that of the other groups was 80 years. If the Student’s t-test referred to a two-tailed p-value, what would the alternative hypothesis be stated as?
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Consider the duration of antibiotic treatment (in days) for the two groups (table 1 page 1695). The mean number of treatment days for the piperacillin/tazobactam group was 6.7 +- 1.6 days. How should we interpret the plus/minus 1.6 days?
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If, instead of the standard deviation, confidence intervals were used for expressing the length of treatment (in days), how would you interpret the following result? The mean length of treatment for severe hospital-acquired pneumonia with piperacillin/tazobactam is 6.7 days (95% confidence interval 6.0 to 7.4 days.
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Researchers quoted a p-value of 0.02 for the difference in effect of two drugs. What is the correct interpretation of a p-value?
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Researchers find a strong positive correlation between alcohol intake and the incidence of hernia recurrence in patients who have undergone inguinal (groin) hernia repairs (p-value = 0.049, significance level 0.05). Which one of the following statements do you agree with?
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