Quiz 1 (Covers Material Through Lecture 3)

Quiz, 12 questions

1
point

1.
Which of the following is true about an observational prospective cohort
study being designed to study the association between cigarette smoking
(smoking ≥ 1 pack of cigarettes per day, smoking < 1 pack of cigarettes
per day, or no smoking) , to be assessed on 3/1/14, and catching a cold
between 3/2/14 and 3/31/14?

Both the exposure and outcome are measured at the same

point in time.

Subjects self-select to be in the exposure groups, so potential

confounders will need to be considered when assessing the
outcome/exposure relationship.

This design ensures that that smoking increases the chances of

getting a cold in March of 2014.

This design minimizes the potential for systematic di erences

between the exposure groups.

1
point

2.
Which of the following statements de nes the 60th percentile value for a
data sample?

The value that is 60% larger than the sample mean.

The value such that 40% of the sample observations are larger
than this value, and 60% of the sample observations are
smaller than this value.

This value always corresponds to the sample mean plus 1

standard deviation.
 The value such that 60% of the sample observations are larger
than this value, and 40% of the sample observations are
Quiz 1 (Covers Material Through
smaller than this value. Lecture 3)

Quiz, 12 questions

1
point

3.
Which of the following sample statistics is least sensitive to the in uence
of outliers for a sample continuous data measures?

The sample mean

The sample standard deviation

The sample variance

The sample median (50th percentile)

1
point

4.
You will need the following information to answer questions 4
through 8.

This graph shows the payment amounts (in thousands of US$ ) for a
random sample of 400 US physicians who received payments from any
of 8 major pharmaceutical companies in 2011. The vertical axis
represents the percent of physicians. (Source: Propublica “Dollars for
Docs” Online Database)

Which of the following best describes the “story” of physician payments

as told by the histogram, and the summary statistics?
 The majority of physicians received relatively “small” payments
(<$25,000) and a smaller percentage received payments
Quiz 1 (Covers Material Through
greater than Lecture 3)
this majority.

Quiz, 12 questions
The majority of physicians received relatively “large” payments
(>$25,000) and a smaller percentage received payments less
than this majority.

The percentage of physicians receiving a given payment

amount was relatively similar for all values across the range of
payment values.

Physicians did not receive adequate payments from the

pharmaceutical companies.

1
point

5.
Refer to the data in Question 4. Given the distributions of the sample
data, what is the most likely distribution of the payment data in the
population of all US physicians in 2011?

normal

left skewed (negatively skewed)

right skewed (positively skewed)

uniform

1
point

6.
 Refer to the data in Question 4. Which of the following boxplots (shown
below the answer choices) corresponds to the physician payment
Quiz 1 (Covers Material
distribution in thisThrough
sample? Lecture 3)
Quiz, 12 questions

1
point

7.
Refer to the data in Question 4. Suppose another researcher takes a
random sample of 1000 subjects from the same population (US
physicians who received payments from any of 8 major pharmaceutical
companies in 2011). You have not yet seen these data. Likely, how will
the sample standard deviation of these 1000 values ([Math Processing
Error]) compare to the sample standard deviation of individual physician
payments in the sample of 400 ([Math Processing Error] = 17 )

[Math Processing Error] will likely be similar in value to 17

([Math Processing Error]), but the exact relationship between
these two sample standard deviation values cannot be
predicted based on the information given

[Math Processing Error] will likely be smaller than 17

[Math Processing Error] will be exactly equal to 17

[Math Processing Error] will likely be larger than 17

 [Math Processing Error]

Quiz 1 (Covers Material Through Lecture 3)

Quiz, 12 questions

1
point

8.
Refer to the data in Question 4. Using the data from the sample of 400
physicians, estimate the percentage of US physicians who received
payments of greater than $10,000 in 2011. This estimate percentage is :

25%

50%

This cannot be estimated without having access to a standard

normal table.

75%

90%

1
point

9.
 You will need to use the following information to answer questions
9 through 12.
Quiz 1 (Covers Material Through Lecture 3)
Achondroplasia, a skeletal dysplasia , causes the condition known as
Quiz, 12 questions
dwar sm, in which subjects have smaller stature (height) than persons
without the condition. The following results are based on a sample of
292 newborns diagnosed with achondroplasia. The boxplot and
summary statistics below give characteristics of the birthweight
distributions separately for the male and female newborns.

Source: Hoover‐Fong J, et al.. Weight for age charts for Achondroplasia.

American Journal of Medical Genetics: Part A, 2007, Vol. 143A, Issue 19,
Pages: 2227–2235.

Based on these results, which of the following statements best describes

how the weight distributions compared between males and female
newborns with achondroplasia?

Male infants weigh slightly more than female infants on

average, but there is a lot of crossover between the weight
values in each sex’s distribution.

The majority of male infants weigh more than the average

female infant.

Male infants weigh slightly less than female infants on average,

but there is a lot of crossover between the weight values in
each sex’s distribution.

The majority of female infants weigh less than the average

male infant.
 1
point
Quiz 1 (Covers Material Through Lecture 3)
Quiz, 12 questions 10.
Refer to the data in Question 9. Suppose another researcher is able to
measure birthweights on a random sample of 1,200 newborns with
achondroplasia. When she computes the mean di erence in weights
between males and females based on her data, how should this mean
di erence compare to the mean di erence from the above results (x̄male
- x̄female = 0.1 kg).

The mean di erence estimated from the larger study will likely
be smaller than 0.1 kg.

The mean di erence estimated from the larger study will likely
be larger than 0.1 kg.

The mean di erence from the larger study will be

approximately 4*0.1, since the larger study has about four
times as many newborns.

The mean di erence estimated from the larger study will likely
be similar in value to 0.1 kg, but there is no way to predict
exactly how the two estimated mean di erences will compare.

1
point

11.
Refer to the data in Question 9. Based on these results, you decide that it
is reasonable to assume that these data came from populations with
(approximately) normally distributed weight values. Using the
information given and your assumption, estimate an interval containing
the “middle 95%” of weight values in the population of newborn males
with achondroplasia.

(2.6 kg, 4.4 kg)

(2.1 kg, 4.5 kg)

(2.7 kg, 3.9 kg)

This cannot be estimated because the data is based on a

random sample and not the entire population.

1
point