Question

A researcher believes that if patients with arthritis go to physical therapy twice a week their pain levels will be lower than usual pain levels. Patients with arthritis usually rate their pain a 3.5 on an 8-point scale. The test was performed at the 10% significance level and the resulting p-value was 0.113

Answer 1

- Identify the null and alternative hypothesis

• H0 = If patients with arthritis go to physical therapy twice a week their pain levels will be the same as usual pain levels. (=)
• HA = A researcher believes that if patients with arthritis go to physical therapy twice a week their pain levels will be lower than usual pain levels. (<)

- State if the results are statistically significant and why

• Because the p-value of .113 is greater than the alpha-level of .10, we fail to reject the null hypothesis, so the results are not statistically significant. Nothing changed our initial assumption.

- Conclude the hypothesis test in context

• Based on this sample, I am 90% confident (100 - 10%) that if patients go to physical therapy twice a week, their pain levels will not change significantly from usual pain levels.