Choose the appropriate summary statistic (mean, event rate, or proportion) for the following scenarios. Explain why it is appropriate and how it could be applied.
a.Data on farm injuries are collected over a 10-year period. Describe the number of farm injuries per year that require hospitalization.
b.Data were collected at a sleep clinic to better understand the variables associated with waking during the night. Describe the number of patients who wake up more than once in a night.
c.Surveys were used to investigate smoking patterns in a group of osteoporotic women. At baseline, participants who currently smoked were asked to provide the average number of cigarettes smoked in a day. Describe the average number of cigarettes smoked per day.

Question

Choose the appropriate summary statistic (mean, event rate, or proportion) for the following scenarios. Explain why it is appropriate and how it could be applied. 
a.Data on farm injuries are collected over a 10-year period. Describe the number of farm injuries per year that require hospitalization. 
b.Data were collected at a sleep clinic to better understand the variables associated with waking during the night. Describe the number of patients who wake up more than once in a night. 
c.Surveys were used to investigate smoking patterns in a group of osteoporotic women. At baseline, participants who currently smoked were asked to provide the average number of cigarettes smoked in a day. Describe the average number of cigarettes smoked per day.

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The Answer is a.Event rate. The numerator of the event rate is the total number of farm injuries requiring hospitalizations during the time period. The denominator is the total number of farmers at risk-requires an estimate of the number of farmers at risk for each year of observation. If this is not available, an "average" number of farmers for a year can be multiplied by 10. The event rate is appropriate because farmers could be injured multiple times.
b.Proportion. Number of patients waking up more than once per night/total number of patients in the study. Patients either wake up more than once per night or not.
c.Mean=sum of the average number of cigarettes smoked per day/total number of participants.

Choose the Appropriate Summary Statistic (Mean, Event Rate, or Proportion)