Question

A paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association (1987) by R.M. Lyle et al describes a randomized comparative experiment to study whether a calcium supplement in the diet will reduce the blood pressure of healthy men. The subjects received either the calcium supplement or a placebo for 12 weeks. One conclusion from the statistical analysis of the results was that ’the calcium group had lower seated systolic blood pressure (p = 0.008) compared with the placebo group’. Explain this conclusion, especially the p-value, as if you were speaking to a doctor who knows no statistics. [4 Marks

Answer 1

(Here we p value is significant and we have enough evidence for the significant association between calcium supplement in the diet and the blood pressure of healthy men)

Given that

p value = 0.008

CONCLUSION

we know that this p value is less than significance level of 0.05, so the result is significant and we can reject the Ho.  The result is significant and there is sufficient evidence to conclude that calcium supplement in the diet will reduce the blood pressure of healthy men.