Math

Name___________________________________________________________________________________Score______________/30 Math 146HON Winter 2012 Exam II Case Study – DUE MONDAY 3/5 IN CLASS USE THIS AS A COVER SHEET! Physicians ' Reactions to Patient Size Research conducted by: Mikki Hebl and Jingping Xu; Case study prepared by: Emily Zitek Overview Obese people face discrimination on a daily basis in employment, education, and relationship contexts. Past research has shown that even doctors, who are trained to treat all their patients warmly and have access to literature suggesting uncontrollable and hereditary aspects of obesity, believe obese individuals are undisciplined and suffer from controllability issues. This case study examines how doctors treat overweight as compared to normal weight patients. Various doctors at one of three major hospitals in the Texas Medical Center of Houston participated in the study. These doctors were sent a packet containing a medical chart similar to the one they view upon seeing a patient. This chart portrayed a patient who was displaying symptoms of a migraine headache but was otherwise healthy. This chart also contained a measure of the patient 's weight. Doctors were randomly assigned to receive the chart of a patient who was overweight or the chart of a patient who was of normal weight. After reviewing the chart, the doctors then had to indicate how much time they believed they would spend with the patient. Questions to Answer Do doctors discriminate against overweight patients? Specifically, do the doctors who review charts of overweight patients say they would spend the same amount of time with their patients as the doctors who review charts of normal weight patients? Design Issues The method and data described here are only a small part of a larger study. See the reference below for a full description of the study. Descriptions of Variables Variable Patient weight Time Description 1 = average weight, 2 = overweight represents how

References: Hebl, M., & Xu, J., "Weighing the care: Physicians ' reactions to the size of a patient," International Journal of Obesity, 25 (2001): 1246-1252 1 Directions: 1. Create box plots comparing the time expected to be spent with the average-weight and overweight patients. Label. 2. What is the mean expected time spent for the average- weight patients? 3. What is the mean expected time spent for the overweight patients? 4. To which group does the patient with the highest expected time belong? 5. Perform an independent samples t-test comparing the time spent with the average-weight patients as compared to the time spent with the overweight patients. Is this difference statistically significant? State your hypotheses and use the traditional method. Be sure to include your decision rule and write a complete sentence stating your actual decision (don’t just say “reject” or “fail to reject” the null hypothesis. Write a sentence that someone who is NOT in a statistics class will understand. 6. What is the confidence interval for the difference between the mean time spent with each group? Use Average weight – overweight as your difference. Write a sentence explaining the results. 7. Write a statement with your conclusions. Do doctors discriminate against overweight patients? Cite your evidence in your statement to support your conclusion. WEIGHT 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 TIME 15 15 45 40 45 20 40 30 40 30 30 50 30 45 WEIGHT 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 TIME 20 30 30 20 25 20 20 30 30 15 30 20 5 20 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 45 30 50 30 30 20 30 20 30 20 20 30 25 20 40 30 30 30 30 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 15 30 25 30 30 20 15 15 20 45 15 60 15 15 20 15 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 3