C Appendix: Symbols used for statistics and parameters

Almost all confidence intervals have the form

statistic±(multiplier×s.e.(statistic)). Notes:

  • The multiplier is approximately 2 for an approximate 95% CI (based on the 68–95–99.7 rule).
  • multiplier×s.e.(statistic) is called the margin of error.
  • Odds ratios have a slight complication, so this formula does not apply for odds ratio (for which the test statistic is χ2 and not t). For the same reason, a standard error for ORs is not given.

For hypothesis testing, t-scores all have the form:

t=statisticparameters.e.(statistic) Notes:

  • Odds ratios have a slight complication, so this formula does not apply for odds ratio (for which the test statistic is χ2 and not t). For the same reason, a standard error for ORs is not given.
  • The χ2 statistic is approximately like a z-score of (where df is the ‘degrees of freedom’ given in the software output):

χ2df.

TABLE C.1: Some sample statistics used to estimate population parameters. Empty table cells means that these are not studied. The asterisk means that no formula is given in this text.
Parameter Statistic Standard error S.E. formula reference
Proportion p ˆp s.e.(ˆp)=ˆp×(1ˆp)n Def. 20.2
Mean μ ˉx s.e.(ˉx)=sn Def. 22.1
Standard deviation σ s
Mean difference μd ˉd s.e.(ˉd)=sdn Def. 23.2
Diff. between mean μ1μ2 ˉx1ˉx2 s.e.(ˉx1ˉx2)
Odds ratio Pop. OR Sample OR s.e.(sample OR)
Correlation ρ r
Slope of regression line β1 b1 s.e.(b1)
Intercept of regression line β0 b0 s.e.(b0)
R-squared R2
TABLE C.2: Some other symbols used
Symbol Meaning Reference
H0 Null hypothesis Sect. 28.2
H1 Alternative hypothesis Sect. 28.2
df Degrees of freedom Sect. 31.4
CI Confidence interval Chap. 21
s.e. Standard error Def. 18.2
n Sample size
χ2 The chi-squared test statistic Sect. 31.4