Paul suspects that ex-smokers have a higher incidence of myocardial infarction (
ID: 3208651 • Letter: P
Question
Paul suspects that ex-smokers have a higher incidence of myocardial infarction (MI) than current smokers. To test his suspicion, he identified 100 disease-free-ex-smokers and 100 disease-free-smokers in 2010, and the incidence of MI between 2010 and 2012 is noted at follow-up visits 2 years later. Paul finds that 2 currently smokers and 6 ex-smokers have developed MI. Which of the following tests is more appropriate for testing the data?
Fisher’s exact test
Chi-squared test
Normal theory method
Contingency table method
Please explain.
Explanation / Answer
Chi-squared test will be used in this case because it is to investigate whether distributions of categorical variables differ from one another.