Quantitative Research Methods in Health Studies

1.A study is run to estimate the incidence of atrial fibrillation (AF) in men and women over the age of 60.  Development of atrial fibrillation was monitored over a 10 year follow-up period.  The data are summarized below.

a)      Compute the incidence of AF over the 10 year follow-up period in men and in women.

b)      Compute the relative risk of AF incidence comparing men to women.

c)       Compute the odds ratio of AF incidence comparing men to women.

2.       A clinical trial designed to show the efficacy of a new drug in reducing progression to hypertension reports the following:

a)Compute the relative risk of progression to hypertension among patients receiving the new drug as compared to the placebo.  Explain what this calculated value means concretely.

b)Compute the odds ratio of progression to hypertension among patients receiving the new drug as compared to the placebo.

3. The Excel file: 2300 WT Assignment1 (worksheet: Q3), lists the emergency department (ED) arrival and discharge dates/times (MM/DD/YY HH:MM) for a sample of 184 patients. Carry out the relevant test in SPSS to determine whether ED length of stay (time between arrival and discharge, rounded to the nearest minute) is significantly longer than 3.5 hours. 

a)      Copy and paste the SPSS screenshots of the steps you used to calculate ED LOS (rounded to the nearest minute)

b)      Copy and paste the relevant SPSS output table(s) from your test.

c)       Report the results.

4.  The Excel file: 2300 WT Assignment1 (worksheet: Q4) lists the lab values of 40 participants before and after a therapeutic intervention. We hypothesize that post-intervention lab values will be lower than pre-intervention lab values. Carry out the relevant difference between two groups test.

a)      State the specific difference between two groups test you used and why that test was chosen.

b)      Copy and paste the relevant SPSS output table(s).

c)       Report the results.