Summarize your understanding of the statistical concept of a confidence interval, including
the meaning and interpretation of a 95%-confidence interval.
As a statistical concept, confidence interval refers to an array of values that will have the
actual value of a population parameter with a certain assurance. Or else, it is the probability that
a population parameter is captured between a set of given values with an assured degree of
confidence (Marks, 2020). Confidence interval is applied by statisticians in a sampling process to
measure the degree of certainty or uncertainty. Confidence intervals do not give the actual value
within a population parameter, but they do offer an arithmetic technique to quantify the
uncertainty in an estimate. 95% confidence interval is the standard measure of confidence
interval that is interpreted as no matter the number of time an experiment is repeated, the true
population parameter would be captured in 95% of the intervals (Marks, 2020). Simply, with a
95% confidence interval, there’s only a 5% chance of being incorrect and a 95% chance that the
true parameter is captured somewhere within the interval.
Give Two Examples of this Concept Applied to a Health Care Decision in a Professional
Setting, and Discuss Practical, Administration-Related Implications.
A basic understanding of confidence interval is required so as to provide a degree of
uncertainty when making health care decisions (Trkulja & Hrabač, 2019). For instance, when
carrying out a research on the effectiveness of a new medical invention on a cancer patient
population, a confidence interval containing low figures such as zero is an indication that the
invention has a high probability of being ineffective. This means a more vigilant approach to
treatment provision for patients within the population. In a professional health care setting, the
application of confidence intervals can give a description whether a prescription/decision has
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been made within the apposite range (Trkulja & Hrabač, 2019). When a qualified medical
practitioner makes a decision with a certain level of confidence concerning a patient’s health care
state; does that an actual indication that’s the patient real health condition? Confidence intervals
can be applied to identify the patient’s health care state, but cannot determine the exact state with
certainty.
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References
Marks, D. F. (2020). Confidence interval. Definitions. https://doi.org/10.32388/u340kh
Trkulja, V., & Hrabač, P. (2019). Confidence intervals: What are they to us, medical
doctors? Croatian Medical Journal, 60(4), 375-
382. https://doi.org/10.3325/cmj.2019.60.375
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