Real-Life Decision Making
Walk an extra mile this week. Take the stairs. Swap your donut for an apple.
We're pretty sure that these lifestyle changes can improve your health.
But what if you are a diabetic? Can a lifestyle change be even more beneficial?
Diabetes is a metabolic disorder. It commonly means a person can't
properly absorb starch or sugar from their blood.
You are a biostatistician designing an experiment for the prevention of
diabetes. You want to see if weight loss and exercise can help prevent the
onset of diabetes, or help people who already have impaired glucose tolerance.
You want each of the subjects in Group A to lose seven percent of their
body weight. You also want them to increase their physical activity so that
they burn an additional 700 calories per week. Group B won't do any additional
exercise or try to lose body fat.
You want the research to span three years. You want to test at least 4,000
participants. You are all set to start your experiment when a researcher from
the organization that is funding the study disagrees with your research design.
"It will cost too much and take too long to conduct the experiment," he
says. He says the company recommends cutting the experiment back to one year,
and testing 500 participants.
This is a drastic cut to your numbers. You don't think the experiment
will be valid or credible using the new guidelines.
What do you do?