Question

Interpret the negative consequence of a Type 1 error in the following example:

Imagine a doctor is prescribing a very expensive medication with potentially dangerous side effect with over dosage. A previous study demonstrated the 5 pills is probably the lowest dosage to eradicate the illness in most adults.

So the hypothesis test would be:

Null hypothesis: dosage for null recovery in adults is greater than or equal to 5 pills.

Alternative hypothesis: dosage for full recovery in adults is less than 5 pills.

In this particular situations, a Type 2 error would mean the doctor maintained the rule of prescribing 5 or more pills, but that was a mistake which mean fewer pills were needed and the patient was needlessly exposed to the risk of dangerous side effects and unnecessary expense.

In 1-2 sentences, explain what a Type 1 error would interpret to this particular situation.

Answer 1

	Ho True	Ho False
Reject Ho	Type I error	Correct
Fail to reject Ho	Correct	Type II error

Ho: Dosage for full recovery in adults is > = 5 pills

Ha: Dosage for full recovery in adults is < 5 pills

Type I error is Rejecting the Null hypothesis when Null hypothesis is true.

So in this case,  adults need 5 or more pills in a day for full recovery. But the Null hypothesis is rejected (Type 1 error) and hence the patients are given less than 5 pills, due to which patients full recovery will be affected. As 5 pills is the lowest dosage to eradicate the illness in most adults, the illness will not be eradicated due to less dosage.