Question

Suppose you want to know if there is any association between soda consumption and obesity in children.

1. Think about how you would go about organizing such a statistical study. What steps would you have to take/what items would you need to include in order to get it off the ground?

2. In your statistical study what is the:

• Population?

• Parameter?

• Sample?    

• Sample Statistics?

3. Given the 4 sampling methods that we have discussed, which one makes the most sense in your study?

4. Why did you choose this method?

2. Let’s say that polls show that 53% of voters plan to vote for Candidate A in the upcoming election with a margin of error of 4%. Can you safely predict that Candidate A will win the election? Explain your answer.

3. Should you trust that you will get a good deal in a store if you see a sign outside the store saying “EVERYTHING IN THE STORE IS up to 80%OFF” Support your conclusion with reasoning.

4. Explain why ‘Are you in favor of a less expensive cell phone plan?’ is a misleading poll question.

                                                             

5. What crucial information is missing from the following news statement that might make you view the results differently: A poll reveals that 77% of Americans support affirmative action.

6. In 2013 a soda company purchased an seltzer company and later did a study on how seltzer was a much healthier alternative to soda and encouraged people who want to lose weight to start drinking seltzer.

1. What type of study would have taken place, observational or experimental? Explain your answer.

2. Would a blind study be needed? If so would it need a double blind or single blind? Explain your answer.

3. How many groups would possibly be needed to do the study and what would they be considered, controlled or treated?

4. Should you trust this experiment and why?

Answer 1

The answer is given for the following question

Suppose you want to know if there is any association between soda consumption and obesity in children.

Think about how you would go about organizing such a statistical study. What steps would you have to take/what items would you need to include in order to get it off the ground?

In your statistical study what is the:

• Population?

• Parameter?

• Sample?    

• Sample Statistics?

Given the 4 sampling methods that we have discussed, which one makes the most sense in your study?

Why did you choose this method?

Answer

For the statistical study let us first define the population

Children age group : 6 to 18

City: XYZ

The parameter under study is weekly consumption of soda in ml

and the Body Mass Index (i.e. Height and Weight ratio)

We can randomly select 10 schools (SRS) and from each school we can collect data for 20 students through Stratified sampling on the basis of 4 age brackets (6 - 8, 9 - 11, 12 - 14, 15 - 18). Our representative sample will be large enough of 200 sample points

We want to calculate the correlation coeffecient between body mass index (BMI) and soda consumed in ml by a child in one week time.

The reason for stratified sample is we can also calculate if age has any relationship with respect to BMI and also drinking habit. For exampe a teenager is expected to consume more soda than a 6 year old kid. This may have some effect on obesity,