Depression a Recent Psychiatric Study from the University of Southampton

question 32

Essay

Depression A recent psychiatric study from the University of Southampton observed a
higher incidence of depression among women whose birth weight was less than 6.6
pounds than in women whose birth weight was over 6.6 pounds. Based on a P-value of
0.0248 the researchers concluded there was evidence that low birth weights may be a risk
factor for susceptibility to depression. Explain in context what the reported P-value means.

---

Definitions:

Sample

A subset of individuals from within a larger population used to approximate characteristics of the whole population.

Poisson Probabilities

The likelihood of a given number of events happening in a fixed interval of time or space, assuming the events occur with a known constant mean rate and independently of the time since the last event.

Poisson Distribution

A probability distribution that expresses the probability of a given number of events occurring in a fixed interval of time or space when these events occur with a known constant rate and independently of the time since the last event.

Expected Frequency

The predicted number of times an event or outcome occurs within a specific interval, based on a probability model.