In: Statistics and Probability
In a clinical trial, 50 patients who received a new medication are randomly selected. It was found that 10 of them suffered serious side effects from this new medication. Let p denote the population proportion of patients suffered serious side effects from this new medication.
Find the minimum sample size needed to estimate the population proportion p with 90% confidence such that the estimate is accurate within 0.04 of p.
sample proportion , p̂ =10/50 = 0.2
sampling error , E = 0.04
Confidence Level , CL= 0.90
alpha = 1-CL = 0.10
Z value = Zα/2 = 1.645 [excel
formula =normsinv(α/2)]
Sample Size,n = (Z / E)² * p̂ * (1-p̂) = (
1.645 / 0.04 ) ² *
0.20 * ( 1 - 0.20 ) =
270.55
so,Sample Size required=
271