Summary of

Confidence Intervals
for
Estimating and p
Basic Form of a Confidence Interval
(estimate) + (table value)(SE of the estimate)
MARGIN OF ERROR (E)
Important facts to know:
The margin of error, and hence the width of the
interval, gets smaller the as the sample size increases.
The margin of error, and hence the width of the
interval, increases and decreases with the confidence.
CI for the Population Mean (
If we assume the population we are sampling is
approximately normal or if our sample size is
sufficiently large the confidence interval for
the population mean is given by:


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.
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\
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n
s
t X
X SE quantile table t X

) ( ) (
95% Confidence means that 95%
of all possible samples that could be
drawn from the population will
produce an interval that covers the
true population mean ().
Finding the t-Quantile Multiplier
The t-distribution has degrees of freedom = n 1,
i.e. the sample size (n) minus 1.

If n is small you can use the t-table from the
Assignment 4 resource links.

If n is such that the table cannot be used you can
use the t-Quantile Calculator in JMP.
t-Quantile Calculator
Enter the df = n -1 in this column. You dont need to do anything else.
Here I have found the t-quantile multiplier for a 95% CI for based
on a sample of size n = 10, for a 99% CI based on sample of size
n = 20, and for a 90% CI based on a sample of size n = 25.
Check these
using t-
table!
Find 95% CI for the mean APACHE
score for patients with lung cancer in
RHC Study
From these data

39
06 . 16
31 . 34
=
=
=
n
s
X
1
st
) Find t-quantile for 95%
confidence with df = 39 -1 = 38

2
nd
) Find CI for



) 50 . 39 , 11 . 29 (
19 . 5 31 . 34 ) 57 . 2 ( 02 . 2 31 . 34
39
06 . 16
02 . 2 31 . 34
=
= =
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.
|

\
|
=
|
.
|

\
|

n
s
t X
Interpretation
We estimate that the mean APACHE
score for critically ill patients admitted
to the ICU that had lung cancer as
their primary disease category is
between 29.11 and 39.50 with 95%
confidence.
JMP gives CIs for
95% CI for mean APACHE
score for lung cancer patients
(29.102, 39.514)
CI for the Population Proportion (p)
If our sample size is sufficiently large
*
the confidence
interval for the population proportion (p) is given
by:

n
p p
quantile normal p
)

1 (

) (

*
Sufficiently large conditions require knowledge of
true proportion (p) nonetheless we generally require:
np > 10 and n(1-p) > 10
For 95% Normal quantile z = 1.96
For 90% Normal quantile z = 1.645
For 99% Normal quantile z = 2.576
Find a 95% for 30-day Mortality for
Right Heart Catheter Patients
Results: n = 2,184 patients had a Swan-Ganz
line put in during their treatment, of these 830
died within 30-days of admission to the ICU.

40%) , (36% or .40) , 36 (.
02 . 38 . ) 0104 (. 96 . 1 38 .
2184
) 62 )(. 38 (.
96 . 1 38 .
)

1 (

96 . 1

38% or 38 .
184 , 2
830

=
= =
=

= =
n
p p
p
p
Interpretation
We estimate that the 30-day mortality
rate for patients that had a Swan-Ganz
line used during their treatment is
between 36% and 40 % with 95%
confidence.