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Nemours Biomedical Research Statistics Course
Dataset 1
The first sixty children between 4 and 12 years of age who agreed to
participate in a study on the benefits of two new dietary supplements
were recruited during well-visits to two local pediatricians. The
supplements purported to increase Pediatric Longterm Undeniable
Coolness (PLUC) when taken consistently. Children were randomly
assigned to one of three groups: a control group, whose dietary
supplement was a placebo; and two treatment groups, one receiving
Supplement A, and the other receiving Supplement B. At the beginning
of the study, investiators recorded the age, height, gender and
baseline PLUC for each participant. After six weeks of dietary
supplementation (monitored at home by parents), all children returned
to their pediatrician for a second PLUC measurement. At the time of
the return visit, children were also administered a written test (the
Lake Woebegone Averageness Scale or LWAS). The LWAS scores can range
from 0 to 100, with 50 being 'Average'. Children from Lake
Woebegone--and many other places--typically score about 75 on this
test. As an additional factor, each of the two pediatricians
participating in the study provided sunglasses for the children to
wear during the study. The sunglasses either had rose-colored lenses,
or the kind of lenses that look like mirrors from the outside. The
investigators were careful to ensure that an equal number of children
were fitted with each type of sunglasses. It was hypothesized that
some sunglasses impart greater PLUC than others independent of
dietary suplementation.
Variable names
- sid - The subject ID
- age - The subject's age in months
- sex - The subject's gender (either 'm' or 'f')
- hgt - The subject's height in inches.
- grp - A single digit indicating the treatment group the subject was assigned to. 1 = Control, 2 = Supplement A, 3 = Supplement B.
- PLUC.pre - The measure of PLUC at the start of the study.
- PLUC.post - The measure of PLUC at the end of the study.
- LWAS - The measure of LWAS obtained at the end of the study.
- Shades - The type of sunglasses given the child (coded as 1 or 2 -- we are blinded as to the type assigned to each code).
- Ped - a code (either 1 or 2) to identify which pediatrician recruited the subject.
Data file
default.csv (you might need to right-click on this and select "Save as" in some browsers)
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