UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS 2020/2021 ACADEMIC YEAR

3RD YEAR EXAMINATION FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF

SCIENCE IN NURSING

COURSE CODE/TITLE: HSU B310: BIOSTATISTICS FOR HEALTH

SCIENCES
END OF SEMESTER 1 DURATION: 3 HOURS
DAY/TIME:MONDAY 9.00AM-12.0PM DATE: 14/6/2021-PL

INSTRUCTIONS: All question are compulsory. Every question attempted by the candidate
must begin on a new page in the provided answer sheets. All answers should be as precise as
possibly.
TIME: 3 hours.

Section 1: Multiple choice questions (20 Marks)

1) A national random sample of 20 biostatistics scores from a CAT exam is listed below. 29,
26, 13, 23, 23, 25, 17, 22, 17, 19, 12, 26, 30, 30, 18, 14, 12, 26, 17, 18
Calculate the sample mean.
a. 20.05
b. 20.50
c. 20.58
d. 20.85

2) Using the 20 biostatistics scores above, calculate the sample standard deviation.
a. 5.98
b. 5.49
c. 5.79
d. 5.94

3) Provided that the biostatistics scores are reasonably normally distributed with a mean of
18 and standard deviation of 6, determine the proportion of students with a 33 or higher.
a. 0.0062

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 b. 0.0109
c. 0.0124
d. 0.0217

4) Failing to reject the null hypothesis when it is false is:

a. alpha
b. Type I error
c. beta
d. Type II error

5) When the correlation coefficient, r, is close to one:

a. there is no relationship between the two variables.
b. there is a strong linear relationship between the two variables.
c. it is impossible to tell if there is a relationship between the two variables.
d. the slope of the regression line will be close to one.

6) The intercept in linear regression represents:

a. the strength of the relationship between x and y
b. the expected x value when y is zero.
c. the expected y value when x is zero.
d. a population parameter

7) The distribution of heights of American women aged 18 to 24 is approximately normally

distributed with a mean of 65.5 inches and standard deviation of 2.5 inches. Calculate the
z-score for a woman six feet tall.
a. 2.60
b. 4.11
c. 1.04
d. 1.33

8) Heights of college women have a distribution that can be approximated by a normal curve
with a mean of 65 inches and a standard deviation equal to 3 inches. About what
proportion of college women are between 65 and 67 inches tall?
a. 0.75
b. 0.50
c. 0.25
d. 0.17

9) Which one of these statistics is unaffected by outliers?

a. Mean
b. Interquartile range
c. Standard deviation
d. Variance

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10) A researcher measured people’s physiological reactions to horror films. He split the data
into two groups: males and females. The resulting data were normally distributed, and
men and women had equal variances. What test should be used to analyze the data?
a. Paired t-test
b. Independent t-test
c. Mann–Whitney test
d. Wilcoxon signed-rank test

11) One use of a linear regression line is:

a. to determine if any x-values are outliers.
b. to determine if any y-values are outliers.
c. to determine if a change in x causes a change in y.
d. to estimate the change in y for a one-unit change in x.

12) A chi-square test involves a set of counts called “expected counts.” What are the expected
counts?
a. Hypothetical counts that would occur of the alternative hypothesis were true.
b. Hypothetical counts that would occur if the null hypothesis were true.
c. The actual counts that did occur in the observed data.
d. The long-run counts that would be expected if the observed counts are representative.

13) Pick the choice that best completes the following sentence. If a relationship between two
variables is called statistically significant, it means the investigators think the variables
are:
a. related in the population represented by the sample.
b. not related in the population represented by the sample.
c. related in the sample due to chance alone.
d. very important.

14) What term would best describe the shape of the given boxplot:

a. Normal distribution
b. Negatively Skewed
c. Positively Skewed
d. Uniform distribution

15) The following data are from a sample of ages (in months) of 18 children at a day care:
36, 42, 18, 32, 22, 22, 25, 29, 30, 31, 19, 24, 35, 29, 26, 36, 24, 28
What is the median age?
a. 29

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 b. 28.2
c. 30.5
d. 28.5

16) Using the sample of ages above, what is the interquartile range?
a. 8
b. 12
c. 16
d. 20

17) If the variance of a data set is correctly computed with the formula using n - 1 in the
denominator, which of the following is true?
a. the data set is a sample
b. the data set is a population
c. the data set could be either a sample or a population
d. the data set is from a census

18) An experimenter measured 30 children’s IQ. He then rank-ordered the children and
assigned them a score from 30 (most intelligent) to 1 (least intelligent) to create a new
variable. Does this new variable consist of:
a. Nominal data
b. Interval data
c. Ratio data
d. Ordinal data

19) A researcher measured the same group of people’s physiological reactions while watching
horror films and compared them to when watching comedy films. The resulting data were
normally distributed. What test should be used to analyse the data?
a. Independent test of means
b. Paired test of means
c. Chi-square test
d. ANOVA

20) Which of the following does a box–whisker plot not display?

a. The mean
b. The median
c. Outliers
d. The lower quartile

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Section 2: Short answer questions (40 marks)
QUESTION ONE (8 MARKS)
The duration of time from first exposure to HIV infection to AIDS diagnosis is called the
incubation period. The incubation periods of a random sample of 7 HIV infected individuals are
given below (in years): 12.0, 10.5, 9.5, 6.3, 13.5, 12.5, 7.2
i) Calculate the sample mean. (3 marks)
ii) Calculate the sample standard deviation. (5 marks)

QUESTION TWO (5 MARKS)

The side effects of a new drug are being tested against a placebo. A simple random sample of
565 patients yields the results below.

Outcome Drug Placebo

Nausea 36 13
No nausea 254 262

i) Suggest the most appropriate statistical test to use to test if the outcome was
associated with the drug. (2 marks)

ii) After using the suggested statistical test above (i), the p-value was 0.15. Provide the
interpretation. (3 marks)

QUESTION THREE (10 MARKS)

Researchers wanted to examine the relationship between physical activity and systolic blood
pressure. They used data from a cross-section survey of 279 Kenyan adults aged 40 to 74 years.
Participants’ physical activity were observed for one year and each individual underwent a short
clinical examination, which included measurement of blood pressure. Using these data the
researchers performed a linear regression of systolic blood pressure (mmHg) on the observed
physical activity (in hours per year), which yield the following results;
Intercept: 120
Regression coefficient: -1.5
a) What assumptions did the researchers make in using the linear regression? (2 marks)

b) Write the equation of the regression line obtained from the analysis, using the variables
and estimated coefficients in this study. (4 marks)

c) Explain the meaning of the estimated value of the regression coefficient in the context of
this study. (2 marks)

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 d) Predict the systolic blood pressure of a Kenyan adult who had physical activity for 8
hours. (2 marks)

QUESTION FOUR (10 MARKS)

You have been asked to provide statistical advice to some colleague nurses at your local hospital
who have more limited statistical expertise. The nurse wishes to compare the ages of patients
according to whether they were in full-time employment or not at the time of attending the clinic
and has the following results.
Mean age Number of patients
(years)
In full-time employment 33.1 1170
Not in full-time employment 27.9 930

i) With a reason (s), state the statistical test would you advise them to use? (2 marks)

ii) State an appropriate null and alternative hypothesis to be tested. (2 marks)

iii) Explain two assumptions about the data which they should consider in using the test
you have recommended. (2 marks)

iv) After using the suggested statistical test above (i), the p-value was 0.15. Provide an
interpretation of these results to the nurses. (4 marks)

QUESTION FIVE (7 MARKS)

A researcher investigated whether taking physical exercise affects people’s chances of getting a
cold. 230 participants were recruited for the study. Out of 115 who did physical exercise 100
people did not get a cold. Out of those who did not take physical exercises, 22 got a cold. Is there
any reason to believe that physical exercise reduces chances of getting a cold at 5 % level of
significance? (7 marks)

Section 3: Long answer questions (40 marks)

QUESTION ONE (20 MARKS)

Below are respiratory rates (/min) of 88 children admitted in ward 10 of Coast General
Provincial Hospital (CPGH) recruited for a blood transfusion study. The respiratory rates have
been grouped into interval of 10s.

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 Respiratory rate (x) Frequencies
0 ≤ x < 10 6
10 ≤ x < 20 16
20 ≤ x < 30 24
30 ≤ x < 40 25
40 ≤ x < 50 17

i) Calculate the mean respiratory rate. (7 marks)

ii) Calculate the respiratory rate variance. (8 marks)

iii) Calculate the respiratory rate standard deviation. (3 marks)

iv) Briefly explain how changing the sample size would affect the standard error
and the 95% confidence interval. (2 marks)
QUESTION TWO (20 MARKS)

A new COVID-19 Astra Zeneca-Oxford vaccine has been developed and is being widely used in the
UK, Europe and Africa. A cohort study of 1000 adult men has been conducted to investigate
potential side effects of the new vaccine. You want to find out whether the new drug has any
effect (increasing or decreasing) on the risk of heart disease caused by blood clots. The table
below shows the results of the cohort study.
Heart disease No heart disease
On new vaccine 100 400
No vaccine 25 475

i) State the statistical test you need to show whether the new vaccine was associated
with heart disease. (2
marks)
ii) Conduct and interpret a significance test of the null hypothesis that there is no
association between taking the new vaccine and heart disease. (12 marks)

iii) State briefly how you would quantify the uncertainty in the magnitude of the effect of
the new vaccine on the risk of heart disease. (3 marks)

iv) State, with a brief explanation, whether you have used a one or two tailed test. (3
marks)

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Areas in tail of the standard normal distribution.

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Percentage points of the t distribution.

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Percentage points of the x2 distribution.

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SUMMARY OF STATISTICAL FORMULAE

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Least-squares method

β1=

β0=

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