Required Resources
Read/review the following resources for this activity:
- OpenStax Textbook: Chapter 8
- Lesson
- Chamberlain University Library
Scenario/Summary
The highlight of this week’s lab is confidence intervals and the use of these intervals in the health sciences. There is a short reading that specifically relates confidence intervals to health sciences and then you are asked to demonstrate your knowledge of confidence intervals by applying them in a practical manner.
Deliverables
The deliverable is a Word document with your answers to the questions posed below based on the article you find.
Required Software
- Microsoft Word
- Internet access to read articles
Prepare
- Download the Week 7 Lab Lecture Notes. Download Week 7 Lab Lecture Notes.
- Follow along with he Week 7 Lab Video and fill out the Week 7 Lab Lecture Notes as you watch the video.
Demonstrate
Steps to Complete the Week 7 Lab
Step 1: Find these articles in the Chamberlain Library. Once you click each link, you will be logged into the Library and then click on “PDF Full Text”.
- First Article: Confidence Intervals, Part 1 (Links to an external site.)
- Second Article: Confidence Intervals, Part 2 (Links to an external site.)
Step 2: Consider the use of confidence intervals in health sciences with these articles as inspiration and insights.
Step 3: Using the data you collected for the Week 5 Lab (heights of 10 different people that you work with plus the 10 heights provided by your instructor), discuss your method of collection for the values that you are using in your study (systematic, convenience, cluster, stratified, simple random). What are some faults with this type of data collection? What other types of data collection could you have used, and how might this have affected your study?
Step 4: Now use the Week 6 Spreadsheet to help you with calculations for the following questions/statements.
a) Give a point estimate (mean) for the average height of all people at the place where you work. Start by putting the 20 heights you are working with into the blue Data column of the spreadsheet. What is your point estimate, and what does this mean?
b) Find a 95% confidence interval for the true mean height of all the people at your place of work. What is the interval? [see screenshot below]
c) Give a practical interpretation of the interval you found in part b, and explain carefully what the output means. (For example, you might say, “I am 95% confident that the true mean height of all of the people in my company is between 64 inches and 68 inches”).
d) Post a screenshot of your work from the t value Confidence Interval for µ from the Confidence Interval tab on the Week 6 Excel spreadsheet
Step 5: Now, change your confidence level to 99% for the same data, and post a screenshot of this table, as well.
Step 6: Compare the margins of error from the two screenshots. Would the margin of error be larger or smaller for the 99% CI? Explain your reasoning.
Step 7: Save the Week 7 Lab document with your answers and include your name in the title.
Step 8: Submit the document.
SOLUTION
In week 5, I used heights data from 10 participants that I selected from the outpatient triage at my workplace. The sampled heights in inches were: 62, 63, 65, 65, 65,67, 68, 69, 70, 71. I utilized a systematic sampling method whereby I picked patients visiting the hospital on a Monday for medical checkup, and then picked 1 out of every 5 for the 50 patients that visited that day. One of the merits of systematic sampling is the fact that provides control and a sense of process and it is also simple to execute (Etikan & Bala, 2017). However, one of the disadvantages of systematic sampling is the fact that the population should portray a natural degree of randomness alongside the selected metric since a standardized pattern can result to the researcher accidentally selecting similar or common cases (Etikan & Bala, 2017). In addition, considering that the researcher has the control to construct the systems, data manipulation risks are high.
An alternative sampling method that could be adopted is the simple random sampling. This sampling method allows an equal chance for all units to be included in the study. However, one of the disadvantages of using random sampling method is that it is prone to bias, especially in cases when the sample size does not adequately represent the population under study.
With the data obtained, the point estimates of the average heights of the participants is calculated using the excel spreadsheet as shown below.
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