Econ 327 Assignment 4 Below are data from two studies involving myocardial infarction.

The first study involves using aspirin to prevent heart attacks and the second involves 22 different clinical tests of the effect of beta blockers to prevent death after myocardial infarction. These are real data from actual clinical trials. Write a report explaining whether you think, based on these data, whether a) aspirin reduces the risk of heart attack and b) whether the use of beta blockers after myocardial infarction reduces the risk of death. Imagine this report is being written for an audience used to reading drug studies, so be sure to explain what statistical tests you are using, and why. As always, present tabular and graphical results in a way that make it easy for the reader to understand your analysis. Email the report, and R script, to me no later than Dec 10.

Study 1 This table is from a report on the relationship between aspirin use and myocardial infarction by the Physicians Health Study Research Group at Harvard Medical School. Of the 11,034 physicians taking a placebo, 18 suffered fatal heart attacks over the course of the study, whereas of the 11,037 taking aspirin, 5 had fatal heart attacks. Fatal Attack 18 5 Nonfatal Attack 171 99 No Attack 10,845 10,933

Placebo Aspirin

Study 2 Below are data from 22 studies of the effect of beta blockers in preventing mortality after myocardial infarction. The 22 clinical trials each consist of two groups of heart attack patients randomly allocated to receive or not receive betablockers (a family of drugs that affect the central nervous system and can relax the heart muscles). The variables are the number of subjects in the study given the beta blocker (Beta.N), and the number of those who died (Beta.dead), and the number of subjects in the study given the placebo (Placebo.N), and the number of those who died (Placebo.dead).
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 study 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Placebo.dead 3 14 11 127 27 6 152 48 37 188 52 47 16 45 31 38 12 6 3 40 43 39 Placebo.N 39 116 93 1520 365 52 939 471 282 1921 583 266 293 883 147 213 122 154 134 218 364 674 Beta.dead 3 7 5 102 28 4 98 60 25 138 64 45 9 57 25 33 28 8 6 32 27 22 Beta.N 38 114 69 1533 355 59 945 632 278 1916 873 263 291 858 154 207 251 151 174 209 391 680

In R format: Placebo.dead <- c(3, 14, 11, 127, 27, 6, 152, 48, 37, 188, 52, 47, 16, 45, 31, 38, 12, 6, 3, 40, 43, 39) Placebo.N <-c(39, 116,93, 1520, 365, 52, 939, 471, 282, 1921, 583, 266, 293, 883, 147, 213, 122, 154, 134, 218, 364, 674) Beta.dead <- c(3, 7, 5, 102, 28, 4, 98, 60, 25, 138, 64, 45, 9, 57, 25, 33, 28, 8, 6, 32, 27, 22) Beta.N <- c(38, 114, 69, 1533, 355, 59, 945, 632, 278,1916, 873, 263, 291, 858, 154, 207, 251, 151, 174, 209, 391, 680)