Find a published research study on a topic that you could use for your DNP project that used a chi-square test and find this information from the study:
- Give the purpose/objective/aim of the study exactly as it is written in the study.
- What is the population in the study?
- What is the independent (treatment or intervention) variable (IV)?
- What is the dependent (outcome) variable (DV)? If there are multiple dependent variables, choose only one for the focus of this discussion.
- What is its level of measurement (nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio)? Is it a categorical or continuous variable? You can determine this as you read the Methods section of the report for how the DV is measured.
- If a hypothesis was stated in the article for the independent t-test, give it here and label it as a Ho or Ha. Write the stated hypothesis as an equation. Write the other hypothesis (the Ho or Ha that was not given) in words and an equation. If a hypothesis was not stated, then restate the purpose/objective/aim as a null hypothesis in words and equation format. Do this for both a null and alternative hypothesis. Again, focus on only one independent variable and one dependent variable. Use the format for the chi-square equation provided on p. 301 of Kim et al. (2022) and the handout attached to the announcement this week.
- What are the assumptions for the chi-square test (Kim et al., 2022, p. 301)? Are they met in this study? Provide information given in the study that can be used to determine whether each assumption is or is not met. What information is not given?
- What alpha level (level of significance) was used?
- What are the groups that were tested?
- Give the frequencies for the outcome variable for the groups.
- Give the chi-square statistic and p-value for the difference in frequencies for the DV.
- Specifically state the p-value rule for the results of this study to determine whether to reject or fail to reject the null hypothesis.
- Based on the decision made about the null hypothesis, what type of error is possible (Kim et al., 2022, pp. 131-132 and Table 7-2)
- What are the usual causes of this type of error? Are any of them present in the methodology for this study?
- The effect size for chi-square results is reported as a Phi or Cramer’s V statistic (Kim et al., (2022), pp. 308-309. Give this value, if given in the study, and interpret what it means in terms of the magnitude or clinical meaningfulness (clinical significance) of the result. If not given, determine the clinical significance of the difference in frequencies by using your knowledge, critical thinking, and experience with your patients and setting. Would you incorporate the intervention or treatment into your practice? Is your evaluation of the clinical significance of the findings consistent with the statistical significance for the findings and the value of the effect size? Explain your rationale.
