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29.2: Comparing Two Means (Section 28.2)

  • Page ID
    8871
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    To compare two means from independent samples, we can use the two-sample t-test. Let’s say that we want to compare blood pressure of smokers and non-smokers; we don’t have an expectation for the direction, so we will use a two-sided test. First let’s perform a power analysis, again for a small effect:

    power_results_2sample <- pwr.t.test(d=0.2, power=0.8,
                                        type='two.sample'
                                        )
    power_results_2sample
    ## 
    ##      Two-sample t test power calculation 
    ## 
    ##               n = 393
    ##               d = 0.2
    ##       sig.level = 0.05
    ##           power = 0.8
    ##     alternative = two.sided
    ## 
    ## NOTE: n is number in *each* group

    This tells us that we need 394 subjects in each group, so let’s sample 394 smokers and 394 nonsmokers from the NHANES dataset, and then put them into a single data frame with a variable denoting their smoking status.

    nonsmoker_df <- NHANES_adult %>%
      dplyr::filter(SmokeNow=="Yes") %>%
      drop_na(BPSysAve) %>%
      dplyr::select(BPSysAve,SmokeNow) %>%
      sample_n(power_results_2sample$n)
    
    smoker_df <- NHANES_adult %>%
      dplyr::filter(SmokeNow=="No") %>%
      drop_na(BPSysAve) %>%
      dplyr::select(BPSysAve,SmokeNow) %>%
      sample_n(power_results_2sample$n)
    
    sample_df <- smoker_df %>%
      bind_rows(nonsmoker_df)

    Let’s test our hypothesis using a standard two-sample t-test. We can use the formula notation to specify the analysis, just like we would for lm().

    t.test(BPSysAve ~ SmokeNow, data=sample_df)
    ## 
    ##  Welch Two Sample t-test
    ## 
    ## data:  BPSysAve by SmokeNow
    ## t = 4, df = 775, p-value = 3e-05
    ## alternative hypothesis: true difference in means is not equal to 0
    ## 95 percent confidence interval:
    ##  2.9 7.8
    ## sample estimates:
    ##  mean in group No mean in group Yes 
    ##               125               120

    This shows us that there is a significant difference, though the direction is surprising: Smokers have lower blood pressure!

    Let’s look at the Bayes factor to quantify the evidence:

    sample_df <- sample_df %>%
      mutate(SmokeNowInt=as.integer(SmokeNow))
    ttestBF(formula=BPSysAve ~ SmokeNowInt, 
            data=sample_df)
    ## Bayes factor analysis
    ## --------------
    ## [1] Alt., r=0.707 : 440 ±0%
    ## 
    ## Against denominator:
    ##   Null, mu1-mu2 = 0 
    ## ---
    ## Bayes factor type: BFindepSample, JZS

    This shows that there is very strong evidence against the null hypothesis of no difference.


    This page titled 29.2: Comparing Two Means (Section 28.2) is shared under a not declared license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Russell A. Poldrack via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.