Hospitals must keep enough antibiotics on hand to treat infectious diseases. Researchers want to determine whether the infectious disease rate is higher in some months than in others. To find out, researchers took a sample of 192 hospital patients in January and found 32 were being treated for an infectious disease. In an independent sample of 403 patients admitted in May, 34 were treated for an infectious disease. Give appoint estimate of the difference in the infectious disease admission rates in January and May.
A. .083
B. .079
C. .093
D. .086
To estimate the difference in infectious disease admission rates between January and May, we can use the formula:
Difference in rates = (Number of patients with infectious disease in May / Total number of patients in May) - (Number of patients with infectious disease in January / Total number of patients in January)
From the given information, we know that in January, there were 192 hospital patients with 32 being treated for an infectious disease, and in May, there were 403 hospital patients with 34 being treated for an infectious disease.
Plugging in the values into the formula, we get:
Difference in rates = (34/403) - (32/192)
= 0.0841 - 0.1667
= -0.0826
Rounding this to the nearest three decimal places, we get -0.083.
Therefore, the approximate estimate of the difference in infectious disease admission rates between January and May is -0.083.
Since none of the answer options match exactly, we can select the closest option, which is option A: 0.083.