Running head: TREATMENT EFFECT ON BMI USING T-TEST

TO:

Dr. Abby Normal

FROM:
Re:

Inferences from Intervention for BMI

Date:

This memo reports on a study which investigated the effectiveness of our

intervention strategy in reducing Body Mass Index. A sample of 30 patients was
used, and three groups; - Gender, Marital status and whether married or not
identified the same patients. The sample had a mean of 27.93 and standard
deviation of 4.95 at pre-intervention and after the intervention, the mean BMI was
25.71 and the standard deviation was 4.05.
In the following section, we conducted the inferential study as per the guidelines
using the t-test in which the discussion follows.
Table 1
Results of t-test and descriptive statistics for Patients MBI, Post-Pre intervention.

Outcome

BMI
PreIntervention

BMI
Post
Intervention

M
25.7
1

SD

27.93 4.95
* p < .05.

95% CI for
Mean
Difference

SD

4.05

30

0.28, 4.16

df

.35

2.33*

29

TREATMENT EFFECT ON BMI USING T-TEST

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Table 2
Results of descriptive statistics and t-test for Marital (0=Not married, 1=Married),
Gender (0=Male, 1 = Female) and Alcoholism ( 0 = No, 1 = Yes)
Outcome

Group
0

SD

SD

25.90

4.20

1
3

29.50

5.02

1
7

28.56

4.92

27.57

5.07

27.03

6.21

28.45

4.16

Marital
Gender
Alcohol

95% CI for
Mean
Difference

1
1
1
1

1
9
1
9

t
2.09
*

df

-2.89, 4.89

0.53.

28

-5.89, 3.05

0.50
8

15.3
0

-7.14, -0.064

28

* p < .05.
3. Dependent sample t-test.
A paired sample t-test was used to determine whether there was a statistically
significant difference between the BMI of the patients at post intervention and preintervention. The mean of BMI at post-intervention was found to be 2.22 units
higher than at pre-intervention, which is statistically significant at 5% level of
significance, t(29) = 2.34, p = 0.026, 95% CI for differences in mean (0.28,4.16).
To test for clinical significance, we used the cohens d effect size estimation,

d=

t
2.33
=
=0.425 , the value is, between 0.2 0.5 which is considered a small
N 30

effect size and thus the intervention strategy might not be practically significant.
The assumption for performing a paired sample t-test include normal distribution of
responses which can be assessed using a histogram; it is also assumed that the
variances for the two measurements are equal. By convention, we believe that the
observations are independent, and the observations at the two points of
measurement are from same subjects.

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Independent sample t-test
A two-sample t-test was used to test whether there was a significant
difference in patients BMI at pre-intervention by Gender, Marital status, and alcohol
consumption. The assumption for equal variances was tested on each group using
the Levenes test for equality of variances, this assumption was not met by the
alcohol consumption group, p <= 0.05. On gender, Males (M = 28.56, SD = 4.92)
and females (M = 27.57, SD = 5.07) had non-statistically significant different means
at = 0.05, t(28) = 0.53, p = 0.60, 95% confidence interval for mean differences [2.89,4.89]. The effect size was calculated for the difference in means based on the

formulae,

d=

X m X F

s2 p

, where

2
p

, is the square root of pooled variance.

Cohens d for gender was found to be 0.19 which is a small effect size and thus,
there is no clinical difference in patients BMI between Males and Females. Based on
alcohol consumption, those who had not consumed alcohol in the last 12 months
had (M = 27.03, SD = 6.21) and those who had consumed had (M = 28.45, SD =
4.16), the difference in the two means is not statistically significant at = 0.05,
t(15.30) = -0.68, p = 0.51 and 95% confidence interval for the difference (5.90,3.05). The difference between the two alcohol conditions was also not clinically
significant, cohens d = 0.3. Analysis was also done on marital status and Men had
(M = 25.90, SD = 4.20) and Females (M = 29.50, SD = 5.02), the difference in the
means was significant at 5% level of significance, t(28) = -2.09, p = 0.046, 95%
confidence interval for the difference in means (-7.14,-0.07). Although the difference
will not be considered significant if the 95% confidence interval is used since 0 is

TREATMENT EFFECT ON BMI USING T-TEST

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not found within the interval. Cohens d for Gender group is 0.77, which is an
indication that gender has a medium effect on body MBI.
With the independent sample t-test, we assume that we have independent
observations and the dependent variable is measured on a continuous scale and
that we have two categories which are independent. We believe that the three
assumptions have been met from the implementation of the experiment. T-test for
equal variances assumed is used if Levenes test supports the null hypothesis
otherwise t-test with equal variances not assumed is used.
Subjects at pre-intervention do not have significant differences in means based on
groups, and the test is important so as to know whether the differences between
pre-intervention and post-intervention can be affected by the group factors.
The sample size for the paired sample is 30 because every subject is used in the
test at pre-intervention and at post-intervention. The sample size for the group
factors varies from group to group, and this depends on the size of each group level
in the population.
In conclusion, It is important that the cost evaluation for the intervention strategy
be done because the effect size was not high in case the cost will be high compared
to the benefits, as such a different intervention method should be studied.