Are We Improving Our Diet?
It has been determined that diets rich in fruits and vegetables are associated with a lower risk of chronic diseases such as cancer. Nutritionists recommend that
Americans consume five or more servings of fruits and vegetables each day. Several researchers from the Division of Nutrition, the National Center for Chronic Disease
Control and Prevention, the National Cancer Institute, and the National Institutes of Health decided to use statistical procedures to see how much progress is being
made toward this goal.
The procedures they used and the results of the study will be explained in this chapter. See Statistics Today—Revisited at the end of this chapter.
Introduction
You may be familiar with probability and statistics through radio, television, newspapers, and magazines. For example, you may have read statements like the following
found in newspapers.
•In Massachusetts, 36% of adults aged 25 and older have at least a bachelor’s degree. (Source: U.S. Census Bureau.)
•In 1995 there were 926,621 bankruptcy filings, while in 2005 there were 2,078,415 bankruptcy filings. (Source: Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Washington,
D.C.)
•Toddlers need an average of 13 hours of sleep per day.
•The average in-state college tuition and fees for 4-year public college is $5836. (Source: The College Board.)
•There is a 3.8% probability of selecting a briefcase containing $1 million on the television show “Deal or No Deal.”
•The back-to-school student plans to spend, on average, $114.38 on electronics and computer-related items. (Source: National Retail Federation.)
Unusual Stat
Of people in the United States, 14% said that they feel happiest in June, and 14% said that they feel happiest in December.
Statistics is used in almost all fields of human endeavor. In sports, for example, a statistician may keep records of the number of yards a running back gains during a
football game, or the number of hits a baseball player gets in a season. In other areas, such as public health, an administrator might be concerned with the number of
residents who contract a new strain of flu virus during a certain year. In education, a researcher might want to know if new methods of teaching are better than old
ones. These are only a few examples of how statistics can be used in various occupations.
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