In the article “Efficacy of antibiotic treatment in patients with chronic low back pain and modic changes (the AIM study): double blind, randomised, placebo controlled, multicentre trial” published in the British Journal of Medicine (Braten, 2019), the authors reported the results of a study on the use of amoxicillin to reduce chronic lower back pain. The summary statistics shown in Table 6.12 are for the Roland-

Morris Disability Questionnaire (RMDQ) score at 12 months, for a group of patients receiving amoxicillin and a group receiving a placebo. Use the information in Table 6.12 to answer the following questions.

(a) Compute a 95% confidence interval for the mean of the placebo group.

(b) Compute a 95% confidence interval for the mean of the amoxicillin group.

(c) Do the confidence intervals in parts

(a) and

(b) provide convincing statistical evidence that the two means are different? Why?

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Treatment n x S Placebo 84 10.7 6.6 Amoxicillin 85 9.0 6.2