Chapter 4.2, Problem 63E

(a)

To determine

To find out: lurking variable may be misunderstood for the surgical or no surgical treatment of a specialist.

Explanation of Solution

A lurking variable is a variable that has a major effect, but is not known as an indicator. It can be excluded because it is unclear about its presence. Due to these factors, often, the patient may be in critical position and have no possibility of survival, and a specialist may prefer not to prescribe surgery and to perform non-operative treatment. There may be other lurking variables such as cost, the patient's health etc.

(b)

To determine

To write: a couple of phrases about how this experiment will be planned.

Explanation of Solution

There are 300 patients who want to be tested by contrasting the two approaches, traditional surgery and the modern treatment method. Assign two sets of 150 each to the patients randomly. One community receives a traditional procedure and the other receives a modern treatment method. Measure how many patients survived with procedure and the new approach without surgery in either of the two classes examined at the conclusion of this study.