Which is the most serious place to

Define statistics
have a flaw in a study?
1. Analyses of data
2. Incorporates
whole science of 1. Design
research studies 2. Data analysis
3. Boring 3. Interpretation
4. Exciting

Reye’s disease is rare and If group A currently has more males, infants
associated with aspirin ingestion and children with severe disease than B,
in childhood. What type of study then the next 1 yr old boy with severe
disease will have their randomisation
would be best to identify this biased in favour of which group?
association?
1. A
1. Case-control 2. B
2. Cross-sectional 3. Neither he is
3. Cohort ineligible

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 What would be the best coding for What would be a good way to
a binary variable with categories display the distribution of the
+ve and –ve? number of siblings we each have?
1. Label variable ‘positive’,
code 1:+ve, 0:-ve
1. Bar chart
2. Label variable ‘positive’,
code 0:+ve, 1:-ve 2. Histogram
3. Label variable ‘posneg’, 3. Pie diagram
code 1:+ve, 2: –ve
4. Label variable ‘posneg’, 4. Dot diagram
code 1:+ve, 0:-ve.
5. Label variable ‘positive’,
code 1:+ve, 2:-ve

Would a pie chart be a good way to What is the best way to illustrate
show the results of this poll? the relationship between height and
age?

1. Yes 1. Side-by-side bar

chart
2. No
2. Contingency table
3. Don’t know
3. Scatterplot
4. Dot plots
5. Stacked bar chart

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 What is the best display to show For the table on p. 67, the odds of
how the number of siblings varies an individual being under 20 are:
by country of birth of respondent?
1. 73%
2. 73/27 = 2.7
1. Side-by-side bar
3. 0.73
chart
4. Cannot be
2. Contingency table
calculated with
3. Scatterplot the information
4. Dot plots given
5. Stacked bar chart

How many standard deviations do we need How would you display how a
to go either side of the mean to capture 90%
numeric variable differs between 2
of the data values?
groups of individuals while showing
all of the data?
1. Scatterplot
1. 2.58 2. Side-by-side
2. 1.96 barchart
3. 1.64 3. Pie diagram
4. 1.28 4. Dot plots

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 The correlation coefficient for A sample of 100 5-15 yr olds have their heights
measured. Similarly, 100 4-5 year olds have their
height and weight will be: heights measured. The standard error (of the
mean z-scores) will:
1. Be larger for the 5-15 yr
1. Negative
olds
2. Zero 2. Be larger for the 4-5 yr
3. Between -1 and 0 olds
4. 1 3. Be the same for each
5. Between 0 and 1 group
4. Be irrelevant

Mean height of 100 adults with None of the 200 individuals given a
disease is 170cm (sd 10cm). new drug have a problem:

1. The standard error of 1. The drug is safe

the mean is 1.7cm
2. Larger numbers must be
2. Most have heights in tested
the range 150-190 cm 3. The upper confidence
3. A 95% ci for the mean limit of the % who have
a problem is 1.8%
is (150, 190cm)
4. The ci for those with a
problem is (0, 0.5%)

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 A p-value of 0.033 means: If the one-sided p-value is 0.04:
1. The null hypothesis is 1. The 2-sided p-value is
false 0.08
2. The null hypothesis is 2. The results should be
true presented as 1-sided
3. The data were unlikely 3. The data are significant
to have occurred if the at 5%
null hypothesis were 4. The 95% confidence
true interval will not be
4. We are 3.3% sure the helpful
data are correct

Individuals with asthma are pair-matched Individuals with asthma are compared to a
with non-asthmatics of the same age and group of similar age and sex. Heights are
sex. Heights are compared. The appropriate compared. The appropriate analysis is:
analysis is:

1. 2-sample t-test
1. 2-sample t-test 2. Paired t-test
2. Paired t-test 3. Something else
3. Something else

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 Individuals with severe headache are
treated using acupuncture. Their headaches Making a decision
improve on average according to a numeric Suppose we decide to introduce the new drug if it reduces blood
scale. Which of the following are true? pressure by at least 10 points more than Methyldopa

P-value 95% Confidence Introduce new

interval for drug?
Paired t-test was used to
1.
difference
show that the acupuncture
was beneficial 0.01 (2, 20)
2. Paired t-test showed that
there was an improvement 0.35 (-6, 8)
that may or may not be 0.35 (-6, 15)
attributable to acupuncture
3. Unpaired t-test was 0.001 (3, 7)
appropriate to show 0.22 (-3, 30)
significance
0.04 (11, 44)

If 5 different groups are compared, why would it be

We want to investigate the relationship between
wrong to perform the 10 possible 2-sample tests
weight and age after adjusting for height using a
and just interpret the p-values independently?
regression model. Which of these variables is the
outcome?

1. It would be too much A. Weight

work B. Age
2. Multiple testing will lead C. Height
to spurious significance
(i.e. p<0.05 more than D. Regression analysis
5% of time) would not be appropriate
3. We would need to
average the p-values to
interpret them

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 Paired binary Unpaired binary N<20
1. Kruskall Wallis ANOVA 1. Kruskall Wallis ANOVA
2. Two sample t-test 2. Two sample t-test
3. Chi-square test 3. Chi-square test
4. Wilcoxon sing test 4. Wilcoxon sing test
5. ANOVA 5. ANOVA
6. Mann Whitney U test 6. Mann Whitney U test
7. McNemar’s 7. McNemar’s
8. Fishers’ exact 8. Fishers’ exact
9. Paired t-test 9. Paired t-test

Unpaired binary N>20 Numeric paired Normal

1. Kruskall Wallis ANOVA 1. Kruskall Wallis ANOVA
2. Two sample t-test 2. Two sample t-test
3. Chi-square test 3. Chi-square test
4. Wilcoxon sing test 4. Wilcoxon sing test
5. ANOVA 5. ANOVA
6. Mann Whitney U test 6. Mann Whitney U test
7. McNemar’s 7. McNemar’s
8. Fishers’ exact 8. Fishers’ exact
9. Paired t-test 9. Paired t-test

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 Numeric unpaired Normal – 2 groups Numeric unpaired Normal; >2 groups

1. Kruskall Wallis ANOVA 1. Kruskall Wallis ANOVA

2. Two sample t-test 2. Two sample t-test
3. Chi-square test 3. Chi-square test
4. Wilcoxon sing test 4. Wilcoxon sing test
5. ANOVA 5. ANOVA
6. Mann Whitney U test 6. Mann Whitney U test
7. McNemar’s 7. McNemar’s
8. Fishers’ exact 8. Fishers’ exact
9. Paired t-test 9. Paired t-test

Numeric paired non-Normal Numeric unpaired non-Normal; 2 groups

1. Kruskall Wallis ANOVA 1. Kruskall Wallis ANOVA

2. Two sample t-test 2. Two sample t-test
3. Chi-square test 3. Chi-square test
4. Wilcoxon sing test 4. Wilcoxon sing test
5. ANOVA 5. ANOVA
6. Mann Whitney U test 6. Mann Whitney U test
7. McNemar’s 7. McNemar’s
8. Fishers’ exact 8. Fishers’ exact
9. Paired t-test 9. Paired t-test

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 The mean of a large sample of size n:
Numeric unpaired non-Normal; >2 groups

1. Kruskall Wallis ANOVA 1. Is approx the same as

2. Two sample t-test the median if the sample
3. Chi-square test is distributed
4. Wilcoxon sing test symmetrically
5. ANOVA 2. Is calculated by adding
6. Mann Whitney U test together all of the values
7. McNemar’s and dividing by (n-1)
8. Fishers’ exact 3. Is always a reasonable
9. Paired t-test measure of centre
4. Is always greater than
the standard deviation

The following are measures of the spread of In a medical paper 150 patients were characterised as 'Age 26 years ±
5 years (mean ± standard deviation)'. If the ages were normally
a distribution of the data: distributed, this means that :

1. It is 95% certain that the

1. Difference between true mean lies in the
mean and median interval 16-36 years
2. Standard error 2. Most of the patients
were aged 26 yrs; the
3. Standard deviation
remainder were aged 21-
4. Correlation coefficient 31 yrs
5. Median 3. Approximately 95% of
the patients were aged
between 16 and 36 years

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 In a small randomized double-blind trial of a new treatment in acute
myocardial infarction, the mortality in the treated group was half that in If the size of a random sample were increased, we
the control group, but the difference was not significant. We can would expect:
conclude that:

1. The treatment is useless 1. The mean to decrease

2. There is no point in 2. The standard error of the
continuing to develop mean to decrease
the treatment 3. The standard deviation
3. Reduction in mortality is to decrease
so great that we should 4. The sample variance to
introduce the treatment increase
4. We should carry out a 5. The accuracy of the
new trial of much parameter estimates to
greater size decrease

A randomised controlled trial of a new therapy for hypertension shows a

statistically significant difference (p=0.0012). The group who received the new
Bootstrapping therapy tended to have lower BMIs and this may have contributed to the
difference observed in blood pressure at the end of the study. The appropriate
interpretation/action would be:
1. All those with BMI > 30 should
be excluded and the analysis re-
1. Is a parametric technique done
2. The new therapy is significantly
2. Is a valid way to construct
better, no further action need be
confidence intervals
taken, it should be introduced as
3. Is an invalid way to obtain p-values standard
3. Since the trial is randomised, the
4. Should be avoided if possible
result must be correct and
5. Does not work for small samples differences in BMI can be ignored
4. The data should be re-analysed
for low and high BMI
5. BMI may be a confounder, it
should be corrected for in the
analysis.

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Blood pressure is measured in a randomly selected group of Children with otitis media are randomised to either a long or
100 teenagers. The median blood pressure is 68mmHg, short course of antibiotics. The numbers who have recurrent
mean 70mmHg, standard deviation 7 mmHg. This information attacks within the following 12 months are compared. The
implies that the blood pressures: appropriate statistical test to make this comparison is:
1. are normally distributed. 1. Analysis of variance
Approximately 95% lie within 2. Chi-square
the range (56, 84 mmHg) 3. Students t-test
2. are non-normally distributed. 4. Mann-Whitney U test
Approximately 95% lie within
the range (56, 84 mmHg) 5. Regression analysis
3. are normally distributed.
Approximately 95% lie within
the range (68.6, 71.4 mmHg)
4. are non-normally distributed.
Approximately 95% lie within
the range (68.6, 71.4 mmHg)
5. were not accurately
measured.

Haemoglobin measurements were made in small groups of

A positive correlation is found between weight and systolic blood pressure
children with 5 different syndromes. In order to assess amongst a group of 10 year old children (r=0.7, 95% ci (0.52, 0.88), p=0.0004).
whether there are differences between the groups that are It can be concluded that :
unlikely to have occurred by chance the following should be
done 1. Before weight loss can occur,
systolic blood pressure must be
1. A further study of much larger
lowered
size
2. Those with high systolic blood
2. Analysis of variance pressures are more likely to be
comparing means between obese
the groups 3. There is a significant tendency
3. The data plotted according to for heavier 10 year olds to have
syndromic group higher systolic blood pressures
4. Mann-Whitney U-tests 4. Weight affects systolic blood
pressure
between each pair of
syndromic groups 5. There is a non-significant
tendency for heavier 10 year olds
5. Non-parametric analysis of to have higher systolic blood
variance comparing medians pressures
between groups (Kruskal-
Wallis)

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