Reference no: EM132907304

The COVID-19 pandemic had redefined the meaning of normal life. Medically, hospitals were crowded with patients suffering from the disease. Suddenly, life became fragile. Economically, many companies were in difficulty and many people lost their jobs. Socially, people could not meet each other face-to-face. The normal handshake became a dangerous move.

Amid this trying times, the elderly was the most affected. Firstly, the disease was more deadly to this age group. Secondly, some of these elderlies were still working for a living prior to the pandemic and suddenly they lost their jobs. Thirdly, many elderlies may not be familiar with social media technology and were distant with their love ones both physically and socially.

Mary was a student of the renowned Singapore University of Social Sciences. During this period, she happened to be an intern of the Society of Elderly Living. The Director of the society, Mr Jonny Tan, was concerned that the anxiety level of the elderlies may have increased substantially. As such, he had approached Mary to assist in the analysis.

Mary chanced upon a social science report on anxiety level of old folks in Malaysia. In the report, twenty-seven (27) old folks were given an anxiety test and their scores were published in 2010. The scores ranged from 0 to 200, higher score means more anxious. Mary decided to use the same test on a random sample of 27 elderlies. She intends to compare these two results and provide a preliminary analysis to Mr Tan.

Question 1

(a) Describe the 90% confidence intervals for the average anxiety scores before and after COVID-19 pandemic. Interpret the meaning of 90% confidence. Based on the confidence intervals, discuss whether we can conclude that there was an increase in the anxiety level among the elderly.

(b) Apply an appropriate hypothesis test to determine if there was an increase in anxiety level for the elderly. Examine the assumptions required to perform the test. Are these assumptions reasonable? Please provide explanations.

Question 2

(a) Criticise the approach used in Question 1 by identifying three (3) statistical concerns. If you have a free hand to study this research question starting from data collection to analysis, explain how you would conduct the project.

(b) Summarise your analysis in a simplified report for Mr Tan to address his concern.