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Feverfew is an herb that many claim will cure a migraine. Does it work better th

ID: 3223152 • Letter: F

Question

Feverfew is an herb that many claim will cure a migraine. Does it work better than standard medicine? To answer this question, one hundred randomly selected migraine sufferers took few at the onset of a migraine. Of the one hundred subjects, eighty-eight reported relief migraine. Another random sample of 125 migraine sufferers took the standard migraine at the onset of a migraine. Of those 125 subjects, seventy-six reported relief from the the 5% significance level, is there a difference in the proportion of subjects that reported the migraine for the two types of cures: feverfew and standard migraine medicine?

Explanation / Answer

We have to test the null hypothesis H0:1=2   versus Ha: 12   , where 1 and 2 are the true proportions of migraine subjects for feverfew and standard migraine medicine respectively.

Significance level =0.05

Test is two tailed.

Phat1=88/100 =0.88

Phat2=76/125=0.608

Sample size n1=100 and n2=125

Standard error of difference in proportion SED=sqrt(phat1*(1-phat1)/n1+ phat2*(1-phat2)/n2)

=sqrt(0.88*(1-0.88)/100+0.608*(1-0.608)/125)

=0.0544

n1*phat1=88>5 and n2*phat2=76>5 , so assumption are satisfied.
Test statistic Z=(phat1-phat2)/SED=(0.88-0.608)/0.0544 =5

We reject the null hypothesis as |Zcalculated|>1.96

Hence, there is significant difference in the proportions of subjects that reported relief for the migraine for the two types of cures: feverfew and standard migraine medicine.