HTH SCI 2S03 Graded Assignment #1 Fall 2019

1. You are a clinician researcher investigating the oral status of a group of patients diagnosed with
thalassemia major (TM). One of the outcome measures was the decayed, missing, and filled
teeth index (DMFT). You know from prior studies that the DMFT is approximately normally
distributed in patients with TM. In a sample of 18 TM patients, the mean DMFT index value was
10.3 with a standard deviation of 7.3. Answer the following questions and show all work. [3.5
Marks total]

a. Is there sufficient evidence to allow us to conclude that the mean DMPT index is greater
than 9.0 in a population of similar patients? Let α = 0.10 (2.5 Marks)

b. Is there sufficient evidence to allow us to conclude that the mean DMPT index is greater
than 9.0 in a population of similar subjects? Let α = 0.25 (1 Marks)

2. You are a clinician researcher working in a mental health outpatient clinic. You are interested in
studying personality types in relation to episodes of psychoses. You obtained data on 126
patients in the clinic and classified them into the following personality types: obsessoid, low self
confident, high self confident, nervous/tense or undeterminable. You then cross-classified these
personality types with three groups of patients: those with acute and transient psychotic
disorders (ATPD), those with “positive” schizophrenia (PS), and those with bipolar schizo
affective disorder (BSAD). The table below summarizes the data. Use these data to answer the
questions below the table. [3 Marks Total]

Personality Type ATPD (1) PS (2) BSAD (3) Total

Obsessoid (O) 9 2 6 17
Low self confident (A) 20 17 15 52
High self confident (S) 5 3 8 16
Nervous/tense (N) 4 7 4 15
Undeterminable (U) 4 13 9 26
Total 42 42 42 126

Find the following probabilities if a patient in this study is chosen at random:

a. P (O)? (0.5 Mark)

b. P (A U 2) (0.5 Mark)

c. P (A|2) (0.5 Mark)

d. P (2|A) (0.5 Mark)

e. P (2 ∩ 3) (0.5 Mark)

f. P ( Ń ) (0.5 Mark)

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HTH SCI 2S03 Graded Assignment #1 Fall 2019

3. You are a nurse working in a sleep clinic and you are interested in the relationship between BMI
and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS). The table below provides the BMI data that you
collected on 29 OSAS patients from your clinic. Use these data to answer the questions below
the table. [7 marks total]

SUBJECT BMI SUBJECT BMI

1 33.57 16 31.44
2 38.34 17 30.49
3 26.86 18 41.50
4 27.78 19 41.75
5 29.01 20 33.23
6 54.33 21 28.21
7 40.81 22 27.74
8 47.78 23 30.08
9 28.99 24 27.38
10 25.21 25 29.39
11 36.42 26 44.68
12 24.54 27 47.09
13 24.49 28 42.10
14 29.07 29 33.48
15 26.54

a. Construct a frequency table showing frequency, relative and cumuliative frequency. [2

Marks])

b. What percentage of BMI measurements are less than 30? What percentage of BMI
measurements are at least 35? [1 Mark]

c. Compute the mean, median and mode for the BMI measurement data. [1 mark]

d. Compute the variance and standard deviation for the BMI measurement data [1 Mark]

e. Construct an appropriate graph to show the distribution of BMI measurement data.

Comment on the shape of the distribution. [1 Mark]

f. What measure of central tendency would be most appropriate for describing the BMI
measurement data? Explain why you selected this measure. [1 Mark]

4. One of the variables collected in the Ontario Birth Registry data is pounds gained during
pregnancy. According to data from the entire registry for 2018, the number of pounds gained
during pregnancy was approximately normally distributed with a mean of 30.23 pounds and a
standard deviation of 13.84 pounds. Showing your work, calculate the probability that a
randomly selected mother in Ontario in 2018 gained: [5 marks total]

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HTH SCI 2S03 Graded Assignment #1 Fall 2019

a. Less than 15 pounds during pregnancy. [1 mark]

b. More than 40 pounds. [1 mark]

c. Between 14 and 40 pounds. [1 mark]

d. Less than 10 pounds. [1 mark]

e. Between 10 and 20 pounds. [1 mark]

5. A medical research team wished to evaluate a proposed screening test for Alzheimer’s disease.
The test was given to a random sample of 450 patients with Alzheimer’s disease, of which 436
tested positive for the disease. The test was also given to an independent random sample of 500
patients without symptoms of the disease, of which 5 testing positive for the disease. The two
samples were drawn from populations of patients who were 65 years of age or older. Use these
data to answer the questions following the table. [2 Marks total]

a. The sensitivity of a test (or symptom) is the probability of a positive test result (or
presence of the symptom) given the presence of the disease. Showing your work,
estimate the sensitivity of the test. [1 Mark]

b. The specificity of a test (or symptom) is the probability of a negative test result (or
absence of the symptom) given the absence of the disease. Showing your work, estimate
the specificity of the test. [1 Mark]

6. Answer the following questions pertaining to a normally-distributed random variable X. Show

your work for all questions. [4 Marks total]

a. Suppose the standard deviation of X is 10. Given that 0.0985 of the values of X are
greater than 70, what is μ? [I Mark]

b. Suppose the mean and standard deviation of X are 100 and 15, respectively. Find the
numerical value of k such that P (100 ≤ X ≤ k) = 0.4778. [1 Mark]

c. Suppose the mean and standard deviation of X are 100 and 15, respectively. Find the
numerical value of k where k’ and k are equidistant from μ and P (k’ ≤ X ≤ k) = 0.9660. [1
Mark]

d. Suppose the mean of X is 25 and P (X ≤ 10) = 0.0778. What is σ? [1 Mark]

7. The aim of a study was to determine how symptom recognition and perception influence clinical
presentation as a function of race. Researchers characterized symptoms and care-seeking
behaviour in African-American patients with chest pain seen in the emergency department. One
of the presenting vital signs was systolic blood pressure (SBP). Among 157 African-American
men, the mean SBP was 146 mmHg with a standard deviation of 27. Existing research on SBP in
African-Americans suggests that SBP is not normally distributed. Assume that α = 0.05 and

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HTH SCI 2S03 Graded Assignment #1 Fall 2019

determine whether on the basis of these data you can conclude that the mean SBP for a
population of African-American men is greater than 140 mmHg. [2.5 Marks]

8. Some studies of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) have shown an increase in CO 2 production in patients
with the disease. In one such study, the following CO 2 values were obtain from 16 neocortical
biopsy samples from AD patients:

1009 1280 1180 1255 1547 2352 1956 1080

1776 1767 1680 2050 1452 2857 3100 1621

Assume that the population of such values is normally distributed with a standard deviation of
350. Construct a 90, 95 and 99 percent confidence interval for the population mean and state
the practical interpretation of each interval that you construct. [3 Marks total]

Total Mark (Out of 30): _____________________________________

Tutor: _____________________________________