PAHS 306

HEALTH STATISTICS AND INFORMATION

Session 3 – Hypothesis Testing

Lecturer: Dr. Roger A. Atinga, UGBS

Contact Information: raatinga@ug.edu.gh

College of Education
School of Continuing and Distance Education
2014/2015 – 2016/2017
 Session Outline
The key topics to be covered in the session are as
follows:

• Topic One – Inferential Statistics

• Topic Two – Definition of hypothesis
• Topic Three – Types of Hypothesis
• Topic Four – Procedure For Testing Hypothesis
• Topic Five – Worked Examples

PAHS 306 Health Statistics and Information Slide 2

 Inferential statistics
 The purpose of Inferential Statistics (IS) is to generate
evidence from which to infer to characteristics of a
population

 In IS a sample is studied and the results used to

generalised to a population
 Inferential statistics
 IS is also known as sampling statistics

 In IS drawing conclusion from a sample to

population involves Hypothesis testing
 What is hypothesis
• A hypothesis is a conjecture or an assumption about a
population parameter which may or may not be true
• Two types of hypothesis
Research hypothesis and
Statistical hypothesis

 A research hypothesis is the assumption or conjecture

that motivates a particular research

 A statistical hypothesis is stated in a such a way that it

may be evaluated by appropriate statistical techniques
 Statistical hypothesis
Two type of statistical hypothesis

 Null hypothesis
 Alternate hypothesis

 The null hypothesis is the assumption or statement

about the population to be tested

The null hypothesis is referred to as statement of no difference

It is designated by the symbol H0

 Statistical hypothesis cont.

• The alternate hypothesis is the statement of what is

believed to be true in the sample data if the null
hypothesis is rejected

• It is designated by H1
 Keep in mind that…..

If your sample does not support H0 you conclude based on

something else to be true

Concluding by rejecting H0 is known as H1

The H1 is the one you wish to prove

The H0 is the one you wish to disprove

 The null hypothesis must always contain an indication of

equality (either =, ≤ or ≥)
 Example of statistical hypothesis
• Eg. if we hypothesize that the mean out-of-pocket
spending for healthcare in a certain community is GHS 30

• Then we state that

H0: µ = 30
H1 :µ ≠ 30

• Where µ is the population Mean

• A sample Mean is depicted as 
 Errors in hypothesis testing
• Two types of errors associated with hypothesis testing

• Type I error
• Type II error

• Type I error is committed when a true null hypothesis is

rejected

• Type II error is committed when a false null hypothesis is

accepted
 Reading List
• Unit 2 of the reader – Health Statistics and Information
Module by R. Atinga

• Daniel, W.W. (2009), Biostatistics: a foundation for analysis

in the health sciences, John Wiley and Sons, New
Baskerville. (Chapter 7)

PAHS 306 Health Statistics and Information Slide 11

 THANK YOU

PAHS 306 Health Statistics and Information Slide 12