Reference no: EM132349770

Exploratory Data Analysis Exercise - Comprehensive care for the patient with resistant hypertension

For this assignment you are given a data file in SPSS. The data comes from a hypothetical quality improvement project aimed at improving outcomes for patients with resistant hypertension. In that hypothetical study, practice changes were initiated at one clinic site and patients at that clinic were compared with patients treated at another clinic site that did not institute the changes. Practice changes included standardized nurse education, regular nurse phone calls and in-home visits for patients who could not make clinic appointments. All data was collected 1 year after practice changes were implemented. Outcomes included knowledge of hypertension, changes in systolic and diastolic blood pressure and adverse events. Independent variables included treatment group status (treatment group vs. control group), sex, and baseline history of complications, which was used as a measure of hypertensive severity at baseline. Knowledge of hypertension was measured using a survey assessing patient knowledge about five different topics. The survey was administered during a clinic visit at the one year follow up. All other data was extracted from the EMR. Baseline data, including values for systolic and diastolic blood pressure (mmHg), sex and history of hypertensive complications (i.e. CVA/TIA, MI, CKD), were obtained retrospectively from the EMR. One year follow up variables extracted from the EMR include systolic and diastolic blood pressure (mmHg) and whether the patient had experienced any adverse events since baseline (i.e. hospitalization, ED visit, new CVA/TIA, new MI, or newly diagnosed CKD).

Here are the instructions for this assignment:

1. Conduct exploratory analyses for this data set. At a minimum, the analyses should do the following:

a. Explore the distribution of all outcome variables using graphing techniques

b. Describe the distribution of all outcome variables using appropriate descriptive statistics

c. Describe the key characteristics of the sample using appropriate descriptive statistics

2. Save a clean version of the output to word; cut any errors or redundancies.

3. Use the output to answer the questions in this worksheet.

4. Upload the clean output to blackboard.

Use your exploratory data analyses output to complete the following table. Questions 1-9 are relevant to Table 1. For this assignment, round all values to the nearest whole number.

Table 1- Baseline characteristics of patients with resistant hypertension who were managed in the outpatient clinic (n=A)

	Total sample	Control (n=B)	Treatment (n=253)
History of hypertensive complications (%)
No	251 (50)	C (54)	117 (46)
Yes	D (50)	113 (46)	136 (E)
Sex (%)
Female	F (36)	91 (37)	91 (36)
Male	318 (64)	156 (63)	162 (G)
Mean systolic blood pressure, mmHg (sd)	H (19)	149 (19)	151 (19)
Mean diastolic blood pressure, mmHg (sd)	100 (14)	99 (I)	101 (14)

1. What is the value for A in the table?

A:

2. What is the value for B in the table?

B:

3. What is the value for C in the table?

C:

4. What is the value for D in the table?

D:

5. What is the value for E in the table?

E:

6. What is the value for F in the table?

F:

7. What is the value for G in the table?

G:

8. What is the value for H in the table?

H:

9. What is the value for I in the table?

I:

10. Which variable is left-skewed in the total sample?

a. Baseline systolic blood pressure

b. Knowledge scores

c. Follow up diastolic blood pressure

d. None of the above

11. Which statement(s) is/are true about adverse events at follow up? SELECT ALL THAT APPLY

a. Patients in the treatment group were more likely to have an adverse event than patients in the control group.

b. Patients in the treatment group were less likely to have an adverse event than patients in the control group.

c. Patients in the treatment group were just as likely to have an adverse event than patients in the control group.

d. 7.5 % of patients in the treatment group experienced an adverse event.

e. 9.8% of patients in the treatment group experienced an adverse event.

f. 12.1% of patients in the treatment group experienced an adverse event.

12. Based on your exploratory data analyses and the assumptions of statistical tests, which statistical test is appropriate to compare rates of adverse events in treatment and control groups?

a. Chi-square

b. Fisher's exact test

c. McNemar's test

d. Independent samples t-test

13. Which statement(s) is/are true about blood pressure levels? SELECT ALL THAT APPLY

a. Average systolic blood pressure was higher at follow up compared with baseline

b. The treatment and control groups have similar baseline variability in diastolic blood pressure levels

c. Average systolic blood pressure was lower at follow up compared with baseline

d. The distribution of diastolic blood pressure at follow up is visibly right-skewed.

14. You and your colleagues plan to use an independent t-test to test the hypothesis that patients in the treatment group have higher knowledge scores than patients in the control group. Which assumption of that test can NOT be evaluated (at least to some extent) using descriptive statistics and graphing techniques?

a. The outcome is normally distributed

b. There is equal variance across the groups

c. Outcomes are independent

d. All of the above.

Baseline summary of exploratory data analyses -

In this assignment, you will develop a summary of the results, building from the exploratory data analysis you performed in the previous module. You may need to run some additional analyses to complete this assignment, using new commands. You are not provided a syntax file for this assignment, but will create your own.  

Submit a summary of your exploratory data analyses in Word. This should be formatted in APA or other style formats (i.e. Chicago). 

Analysis should have a plan, determined by the research question and aims.  Aims of your analysis could be to simply describe variables cross-sectionally at one time point.  More complicated questions/aims could compare groups, testing the effect of the intervention or difference in a variable between 2 groups.  Think about a logical flow to your analysis.  If you compare baseline characteristics of your sample between 2 groups, it would make sense to carry that comparison through the remainder of results when testing outcomes.  This assignment allows for flexibility in approach, so consider practicing an approach that is similar to what you will do in your own projects (ie. compare pre to post or difference between two groups in a variable of interest).

 The summary (3 page maximum) should include, at a minimum: 

1) One table summarizing baseline characteristics of the sample. 

a. Use appropriate descriptive statistics. 

b. Format the table to make any appropriate comparisons.

2) 1-2 Figures displaying the distribution of key dependent variable(s) using appropriate graphing techniques. You may also make a figure showing results from a comparison if you choose.

3) Results section: Include at least one sentence summarizing results from each table and each figure. Do not repeat results that are presented in the tables. Instead, summarize results and highlight key results. Also, there may be results from your exploratory data analyses that are more suitable to presenting in the text rather than in the table/figures; show those results in the text. Do not interpret results in the results section.

4) Conclusion section: Include 2-3 sentences that synthesize findings and provide at least one nursing or public health implication of the findings. Make a statement of limitation/suggestion for future research (No citations needed).

Attachment:- Data Analysis Assignment Files.rar