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A recent survey of 1000 American women between the ages of 45 and 64 asked them what medical condition they most feared. Of those sampled, 61% said breast cancer, 8% said heart disease, and the rest picked other conditions. By contrast, currently about 3% of female deaths are due to breast cancer, whereas 32% are due to heart disease.

(a) A 90% confidence interval for the population proportion of women who most feared breast cancer is (use 3 decimal places)

(b) Which of the following is the correct interpretation of the interval you calculated in part (a)?

User BAN
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Final answer:

To determine a 90% confidence interval for the population proportion of women who most feared breast cancer, we calculate the standard error, then the margin of error. Finally, we construct the confidence interval using the sample proportion and the margin of error. The correct interpretation is that we can be 90% confident that the true population proportion lies within the constructed interval.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine a 90% confidence interval for the population proportion of women who most feared breast cancer, we first need to calculate the standard error. The formula for the standard error is:

SE = sqrt((p * (1-p)) / n)

where p is the sample proportion (0.61), and n is the sample size (1000). Substituting the values into the formula:

SE = sqrt((0.61 * (1-0.61)) / 1000) = 0.015

Next, we can calculate the margin of error (ME) using the formula:

ME = z * SE

where z is the z-score corresponding to the desired confidence level (90% confidence level corresponds to a z-score of approximately 1.645). Substituting the values into the formula:

ME = 1.645 * 0.015 = 0.025

The 90% confidence interval is then given by:

CI = sample proportion +/- ME

Substituting the values:

CI = 0.61 +/- 0.025

CI = (0.585, 0.635)

(a) A 90% confidence interval for the population proportion of women who most feared breast cancer is (0.585, 0.635).

(b) The correct interpretation of the interval is that we can be 90% confident that the true population proportion of women who most feared breast cancer lies within the interval of 0.585 to 0.635.

User Csbarnes
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