Project Description

For this project, your group will demonstrate understanding how to read scientific journal articles with special attention paid to:

• the design and conduct of the scientific study,
• the methods used in analyzing the data,
• the presentation of analysis results,
• as well as the final conclusions made.

Before working on the project together, each group member should have independently read:

1. "Zafirlukast in Clinical Practice, Results of the Accolate Clinical Experience and Pharmacoepidemiology Trial (ACCEPT) in Patients with Asthma", The Journal of Family Practice, Vol. 48, No. 6. June 1999.
2. "Prediction of College Student Dropouts Using EDS Scores", Journal of College Student Development, Vol. 40, No. 1. January/February 1999.

Article 1: Zafirlukast in Clinical Practice

1. Why was the research presented in this article conducted?

2. Create a chart (or diagram of a time line) that summarizes patient progression through the study. At each major time point, indicate how the patient was evaluated and/or indicate, in broad terms, the data collected on the patient.

3. A large amount of data was collected on each patient. Create a table that is similar in structure and content to the following table:

Complete the table keeping the following in mind:

• The details of the data collected on each patient are provided in the paper.
• We have previously used "categorical" and "numerical" as ways of describing types of data.
• There may be more than one way to summarize the data.

4. For each of the following, determine whether or not you think the results of this study can be extended to the type of patient described. For each patient, justify your answer.

• A 36-year-old white, female smoker who has smoked roughly 2 packs a day for the last 4 years. She was recently diagnosed with asthma 6 months ago, but has been treating her asthma successfully with a b₂-agonist as needed. Her FEV₁ is 80% of predicted.
• A 45-year-old black male, nonsmoker. Diagnosed with asthma while in his 20's. He has no known other concurrent diseases. Patient has taken zafirlukast for 5 consecutive days.
• A 23-year-old female, nonsmoker. Women is possibly pregnant. Recently had an asthma attack that required hospitalization and subsequent treatment with oral steroids.

5. In Table 2, the authors summarize the changes in pulmonary function for patients taking zafirlukast from baseline to week 4.

• What was the average morning peak expiratory flow (PEF) at week 4 for the 2796 patients in the sample?
• Let's extend the results of this sample to a conceptual population of all asthma patients taking zafirlukast. For what range of values can we be confident that the mean change in morning PEF is captured?
• Based on the above range, can we be confident that the mean morning PEF has increased? Why or why not?
• The authors write "Significant improvement (P < 0.001) was observed for each pulmonary function measure within 1 week of beginning treatment with zafirlukast, and the improvement increased weekly over the treatment period." What are the authors null and alternative hypotheses? And what testing procedure did the authors use to test the hypotheses?

6. In Table 3, the authors compare the change in pulmonary function for three groups of asthma patients: mild, moderate, and severe.

• For each severity group, for what range of values can we be confident that the mean change in morning PEF is captured?
• Based on the above three ranges of values, can we conclude that the mean change in morning PEF differs for the three severity groups? Justify your answer.
• Is your conclusion above consistent with the results presented in Table 3? Explain.

7. A journalist for the Disassociated Press wrote an article that summarized the results of the study. In the article, she wrote:

The results of the ACCEPT Study are very important to a population of Americans in which asthma is becoming more and more prevalent. Based on this study, we can be confident that a broad range of asthma patients are far better off taking zafirlukast, over nothing, for their asthma symptoms.

React to the journalist's conclusion. Defend your argument either way.

Article 2: Prediction of College Student Dropouts Using EDS Scores

1. What was the authors' primary goal in conducting this research?

• State the goal in words.
• And then, state the authors' primary null and alternative hypotheses using statistical notation.

2. Answer the following questions concerning the groups compared:

• What are the two primary groups being compared in this study?
• How were the groups formed?

3. Answer the following questions concerning the primary outcome measure:

• With respect to what primary outcome measure are the two groups compared?
• What possible values can the outcome measure take on?
• What type of data does the outcome measure produce?
• And, what possible way could you summarize the resulting data?

4. Answer the following questions concerning the results:

• What is the mean EDS score for the conceptual population of all graduates?
• What is the mean EDS score for the conceptual population of all students no longer enrolled but not graduated?
• Based on your above results, can you conclude that the mean EDS score differs between the two groups? Justify your answer.
• Are your results consistent with what the authors report in the article? Explain.

5. In Table 1, what were the authors interested in comparing for Item #9?

• State the comparison of interest in words.
• And then, state the authors' null and alternative hypotheses using statistical notation.
• Being as accurate as possible with the information presented, what is the authors' P-value for Item #9?
• Explain why the authors might not reject the null hypothesis even though the sample percentages differ by as much as 21%.

What to hand in? and when?

Submit a double-spaced, typewritten response to each question above. Your answers should be written in complete sentences. Make sure you include your group number, and the name of each group member that participated in the solutions.