Description

Article: Does Aspirin Reduce Heart Attack Rates? In 1988, the Steering Committee of the Physicians 'Health Study Research Group released the results of five-year randomized experiment conducted using 22,071 male physicians between the ages of 40 and 84. The purpose of the experiment was to determine whether taking aspirin reduces the risk of a heart attack. The physicians had been randomly assigned to one of the two treatment groups. One group took an ordinary aspirin tablet every other day, while the other group took a placebo. None of the physicians knew whether he was taking the actual aspirin or the placebo. The results, shown below, support the conclusion that taking aspirin does indeed help to reduce the risk of having a heart attack. Treatment Heart Attacks Doctor in Group Attacks per 1000 Doctors Aspirin 104 11,037 9.42 Placebo 189 11,034 17.13 The rate of heart attacks in the group taking aspirin was only about half the rate of heart attacks in the placebo group. In the aspirin group, there were 9.42 heart attacks per 1000 participating doctors, while in the placebo group, there were 17.13 heart attacks per 1000 participants. Because the men in this experiment were randomly assigned to the two conditions, other important risk factors such as age amount of exercise, dietary habits should have been similar for the two groups. The only important difference between the two groups should have been whether they took aspirin or a placebo. This makes it possible to conclude that taking aspirin actually caused the lower rate of heart attacks foe the group..

1. What was the author's (or authors') primary goal in conducting this research?
2. Identify the population of the study.
3. Identify the sample of the study.
4. Was the study observational or experimental? Explain.
5. Did you find the article interesting? Why or why not?
6. What type of data was analyzed: qualitative or quantitative? Explain.
7. How did the author choose to present the analysis (type of graphs/tables, etc.)? Was the table or graph appropriate for the type of data used? Explain.
8. Is the presentation of the study clear and concise? Why or why not?
9. Using all of the data, summarize the final conclusions that were made.
10. With the data and information provided, can you make any predictions or informed decisions? If not, why? If so, what are your predictions or decisions?
11. What are the practical implications for the results of this article? Explain.
12. Which statistical concepts could you identify from the concepts discussed so far in class? List the words/concepts used in the article that have been discussed in class.