Excelsior Module 6 Confidence Intervals Discussion

Question Description

This week's work references two articles:

Schmidt, et al. (2018) Research Techniques Made Simple: Sample Size Estimation and Power Calculation (Links to an external site.) from the Journal of Investigative Dermatology

Poorolajal, et al. (2016) Substance Use Disorder and Risk of Suicidal Ideation, Suicide Attempt and Suicide Death: A Meta-Analysis (Links to an external site.) from the Journal of Public Health

Mental health is an important component of public health. Read the Schmidt et al. (2018) article on the influence of sample size and then the Poorolajal et al. (2016) article of the relationship between substance use disorder and increased suicidal ideation.

This week:

Please take the quiz located at the bottom of the Schmidt et al. (2018) article.

Examine the confidence intervals in the article.

Examine the confidence intervals reported in the abstract (note that an odds ratio (OR) of 1 means no change in risk) and comment on the corresponding sample sizes.

Discuss the following questions:

What did you learn from the quiz?

Is the confidence interval statistically significant?

How does the size of the samples affect your opinion of the conclusions reached?

Engaging Discussion Expectations