Required Resources

Read/review the following resources for this activity:

https://openstax.org/details/books/statistics

Textbook: Chapter 8
Lesson
Minimum of 1 scholarly source
In your reference for this assignment, be sure to include both your text/class materials AND your outside reading(s).

Confidence Intervals

In everyday terms, a confidence interval is the range of values around a sample statistic (such as mean or proportion) within which clinicians can expect to get the same results if they repeat the study protocol or intervention, including measuring the same outcomes the same ways. As you ask yourself, “Will I get the same results if I use this research?”, you must address the precision of study findings, which is determined by the Confidence Interval. If the CI around the sample statistic is narrow, you can be confident you will get close to the same results if you implement the same research in your practice.

Consider the following example. Suppose that you did a systematic review of studies on the effect of tai chi exercise on sleep quality, and you found that tai chi affected sleep quality in older people. If, according to your study, you found the lower boundary of the CI to be .49, the study statistic to be 0.87, and the upper boundary to be 1.25, this would mean that each end limit is 0.38 from the sample statistic, which is a relatively narrow CI.

(UB + LB)/2 = Statistic [(1.25 + .49)/2 = .87]

Keep in mind that a mean difference of 0 indicates there is no difference; this CI does not contain 0. Therefore, the sample statistic is statistically significant and unlikely to occur by chance.

Because this was a systematic review, and tai chi exercise has been established from the studies you assessed as helping people sleep, based on the sample statistics and the CI, clinicians could now use your study and confidently include tai chi exercises among possible recommendations for patients who have difficulty sleeping.

Now you can apply your knowledge of CIs to create your own studies and make wise decisions about whether to base your patient care on a particular research finding.

Initial Post Instructions

Find an example of a confidence interval in the news, scholarly source or medical journal. Summarize the article/study. Does the article/study include the sample size and the level of confidence used to create the confidence interval? Explain what the confidence interval means in context of the news article or scholarly source.

Follow-Up Post Instructions

Respond to at least two peers or one peer and the instructor. Further the dialogue by providing more information and clarification.

Here are some suggested responses

How do you think the confidence interval that was presented in the study was calculated?
Explain the mathematical concepts could you extract from this article/study.
Writing Requirements

Minimum of 2 posts (1 initial & 1 follow-up)
APA format for in-text citations and list of references

NOTE
*Credited means stating where the information came from (specific article, text, or lesson). Examples: our text discusses…., The information from our lesson states…, Smith (2010) claimed that…, Mary Manners (personal communication, November 2017)…

**Assigned readings are those listed on the syllabus or assignments page as required reading. This may include text readings, required articles, or required websites.

***Scholarly source – per APA Guidelines, only scholarly sources should be used in assignments. These include peer-reviewed publications, government reports, or sources written by a professional or scholar in the field. Wikipedia, Wikis, .com websites or blogs should not be used as anyone can add information to these sites. For the discussions, reputable internet sources such as websites by government agencies (.gov) and respected organizations (.org) can be counted as scholarly sources. Outside sources do not include assigned required readings.