Chapter 20, Problem 43E

Pain Researchers comparing the effectiveness of two pain medications randomly selected a group of patients who had been complaining of a certain kind of joint pain. They randomly divided these people into two groups, then administered the pain killers. Of the 112 people in the group who received medication A, 84 said this pain reliever was effective. Of the 108 people in the other group, 66 reported that pain reliever B was effective.

1. a) Write a 95% confidence interval for the percent of people who may get relief from this kind of joint pain by using medication A. Interpret your interval.
2. b) Write a 95% confidence interval for the percent of people who may get relief by using medication B. Interpret your interval.
3. c) Do the intervals for A and B overlap? What do you think this means about the comparative effectiveness of these medications?
4. d) Find a 95% confidence interval for the difference in the proportions of people who may find these medications effective. Interpret your interval.
5. e) Does this interval contain zero? What does that mean?
6. f) Why do the results in parts c and e seem contradictory? If we want to compare the effectiveness of these two pain relievers, which is the correct approach? Why?