Question

A seven-year medical research study reported that women whose mothers took the drug DES during pregnancy were twice as likely to develop tissue abnormalities that might lead to cancer as were women whose mothers did not take the drug.a. This study involved the comparison of two populations. What were the populations?b. Do you suppose the data were obtained in a survey or an experiment?c. For the population of women whose mothers took the drug DES during pregnancy, a sample of 3980 women showed 63 developed tissue abnormalities that might lead to cancer. Provide a descriptive statistic that could be used to estimate the number of women out of 1000 in this population who have tissue abnormalities.d. For the population of women whose mothers did not take the drug DES during pregnancy, what is the estimate of the number of women out of 1000 who would be expected to have tissue abnormalities?e. Medical studies often use a relatively large sample (in this case, 3980). Why?

Answer 1

The two populations compared in the study were women whose mothers took the drug DES during pregnancy and those whose mothers did not. The data in the study were obtained through an observational study. A descriptive statistic can be used to estimate the number of women with tissue abnormalities out of 1000 in the population of women whose mothers took the drug DES during pregnancy.

Step-by-step explanation:

a. The two populations in the study were: 1) women whose mothers took the drug DES during pregnancy and 2) women whose mothers did not take the drug.

b. The data in this study were obtained through an observational study, specifically a cohort study. This means that the researchers observed and compared the outcomes between the two groups of women without directly manipulating any variables.

c. A descriptive statistic that could be used to estimate the number of women out of 1000 in the population of women whose mothers took the drug DES during pregnancy and developed tissue abnormalities is:

Number of women with tissue abnormalities in the sample: 63

Descriptive statistic: (63 / 3980) * 1000 = 15.83

Therefore, an estimate is that 15.83 out of 1000 women in this population have tissue abnormalities that might lead to cancer.

d. Since the study only reported that women whose mothers took the drug DES during pregnancy were twice as likely to develop tissue abnormalities, without providing an exact percentage, it is not possible to estimate the number of women without more specific information.

e. Medical studies often use a relatively large sample size, like 3980, to increase the reliability and representativeness of the findings. A larger sample size helps to reduce the chance of biased or random results and increases the generalizability of the findings to the larger population.

Answer 2

16 women per 1 000

Step-by-step explanation:

The data was likely to be obtained from a survey. The question states how the information was gathered - most probably from questionnaires.

c. A simple model will be 16 women per 1 000 women. Proportion has been taken into account here.

Let 63 correspond with those that are going to get cancer out of 3980. The women have 63/3980 chance of getting cancer.

For 1 000 women that will be 1000/3980 × (63) = 16

Therefore the probability of a person getting cancer is 16 per 1 000 Ans

e. Large samples are essential to ensure that the results are representative of the actual population. In addition, large samples reduce inherent errors from deviations. Furthermore, useless data can be discarded and the remaining data still represent the actual population size. Lastly, large amounts of data are easy to scale up and use to develop models.