Does breast-feeding weaken bones? Breast-feeding mothers secrete calcium into their milk. Some of the calcium may come from their bones, so mothers may lose bone mineral. Researchers compared a random sample of 47breast-feeding women with a random sample of 22women of similar age who were neither pregnant nor lactating. They measured the percent change in the bone mineral content (BMC) of the women's spines over three months. Comparative boxplots and summary statistics for the data from fathroom are shown below

(a) Based on the graph and numerical summaries, write a few sentences comparing the percent changes in BMC for the two groups.

(b) Is the mean change in BMC significantly lower for the mothers who are breast-feeding? Carry out an appropriate test to support your answer.

(c) Can we conclude that breast-feeding causes a mother's bones to weaken? Why or why not?

(d) Construct and interpret a95%confidence interval for the difference in mean bone mineral loss. Explain how this interval provides more information than the significance test in part (b).

Short Answer

Expert verified

(a) Because there is a higher mean for nonpregnant and the boxplot is considerably more to the right, the Not Pregnant Centre likely to be greater than the Breastfeeding Centre. Because it has a higher standard deviation and more distance between the boxplot whiskers, the distribution seems to be larger than the distribution for the Breastfeed community Non-pregnant party. As the median of the boxplot farther to the left, both distributions appear to be right-skewed.

(b) Yes, breast-feeding mothers experience a significantly lower mean change in BMC.

(c) No, we can't deduce that breastfeeding weakens a mother's bones.

(d) -4.850,-2.943

Step by step solution

01

Part (a) Step 1: Given Information

Given in the question that,

We have to write a few sentences comparing the percent changes in BMC for the two groups.

02

Part (a) Step 2: Explanation

Because there is a higher mean for nonpregnant and the boxplot is considerably more to the right, the Not Pregnant Centre likely to be greater than the Breastfeeding Centre. Because it has a higher standard deviation and more distance between the boxplot whiskers, the distribution seems to be larger than the distribution for the Breastfeed community Non-pregnant party. As the median of the boxplot farther to the left, both distributions appear to be right-skewed.

03

Part (b) Step 1: Given Information 

Given in the question that,

s1=2.50561s2=1.29832n1=47n2=22

x¯1=-3.58723x¯2=0.309091

We have to determine is the mean change in BMC significantly lower for the mothers who are breast-feeding.

04

Part (b) Step 2: Explanation 

The formula of test statistic is

t=x¯1-x¯2s12n1+s2m2=-3.58723-0.3000912.50561247+1.29832222=-8.499

The degree of freedom is

df=minn1-1,n2-1=min(47-1,22-1)=21

The P value is

P<0.0005P<0.05rejectH0

There is sufficient evidence to support the claim that the mean change in BMC for breast-feeding women is significantly lower

05

Part (c) Step 1: Given Information  

We have to conclude that breast-feeding causes a mother's bones to weaken

06

Part (c) Step 2: Explanation 

An experiment purposely puts specific care on persons in order to examine their reactions. An observational research attempts to obtain details without upsetting the scene they are investigating. Observational Research Because the study is not an experiment, a correlation (that breastfeeding weakens mother's bones) cannot be inferred because the study could be influenced by unknown circumstances.A lurking variable is one that has a significant impact on the relationship between variables in an analysis but is not one of the analysed explanatory factors. If you wish to prove causation, you'll need to do an experiment.

07

Part (d) Step 1: Given Information  

Given in the question that,

Unlock Step-by-Step Solutions & Ace Your Exams!

  • Full Textbook Solutions

    Get detailed explanations and key concepts

  • Unlimited Al creation

    Al flashcards, explanations, exams and more...

  • Ads-free access

    To over 500 millions flashcards

  • Money-back guarantee

    We refund you if you fail your exam.

Over 30 million students worldwide already upgrade their learning with Vaia!

One App. One Place for Learning.

All the tools & learning materials you need for study success - in one app.

Get started for free

Most popular questions from this chapter

Suppose the true proportion of people who use public transportation to get to work in the Washington, D.C., area is 0.45In a simple random sample of 250people who work in Washington , what is the standard deviation of the sampling distribution of p^?

(a) 0.4975

(b)0.2475

(c) 0.0315

(d) 0.0009

(e) 0.617

Coaching and SAT scores (8.3,10.2)Let’s first ask if students who are coached increased their scores significantly.

(a) You could use the information on the Coached line to carry out either a two-sample t test comparing Try 1with Try 2 for coached students or a paired t test using Gain. Which is the correct test? Why?

(b) Carry out the proper test. What do you conclude?

(c) Construct and interpret a 99% confidence interval for the mean gain of all students who are coached

Paired or unpaired? In each of the following settings, decide whether you should use paired t procedures or two-sample t procedures to perform inference. Explain your choice. 42

(a) To test the wear characteristics of two tire brands, A and B, each brand of tire is randomly assigned to 50 cards of the same make and model.

(b) To test the effect of background music on productivity, factory workers are observed. For one month, each subject works without music. For another month, the subject works while listening to music on an MP3 player. The month in which each subject listens to music is determined by a coin toss.

(c) A study was designed to compare the effectiveness of two weight-reducing diets. Fifty obese women who volunteered to participate were randomly assigned into two equal-sized groups. One group used Diet \(A\) and the other used Diet B. The weight of each woman was measured before the assigned diet and

You can find the Excite Poll online at poll.excite.com. You simply click on a response to become part of the sample. The poll question for June 19,2005, was “Do you prefer watching first-run movies at a movie theater, or waiting until they are available on home video or pay-per-view?” In all, 8896people responded, with only 12%(1118people) saying they preferred theaters. You can conclude that

(a) American adults strongly prefer home videos or pay-per-view.

(b) the high nonresponse rate prevents us from drawing a conclusion.

(c) the sample is too small to draw any conclusion.

(d) the poll uses voluntary response, so the results tell us little about all American adults.

(e) American adults strongly prefer seeing movies at a movie theater.

48. Did the randomization produce similar groups? First, compare the two groups of birds in the first year. The only difference should be the
chance effect of the random assignment. The study report says: “In the experimental year, the degree of synchronization did not differ between
food-supplemented and control females.” For this comparison, the report gives t=-1.05.
(a) What type of tstatistic (one-sample, paired, or two-sample) is this? Justify your answer.
(b) Explain how this value of t leads to the quoted conclusion.

See all solutions

Recommended explanations on Math Textbooks

View all explanations

What do you think about this solution?

We value your feedback to improve our textbook solutions.

Study anywhere. Anytime. Across all devices.

Sign-up for free