BIOSTATISTICS

Hypothesis Testing for 3 or More Population Means

3. Repeated - Measures ANOVA Repeated-measures ANOVA is a technique used as an extension of the paired or dependent t-test to more than 2 dependent measures taken from a single group of subjects. Repeated-measures is a term used when the same subjects or participants take part in all conditions of an experiment. For example, suppose I wanted to know whether drinking alcohol affects the reaction time of adults when driving. I could take a group of 50 adults and test their stop reaction time by flashing a red light at each one of them when they driving and measuring how long it takes for each one to apply the brakes. After calculating the average amount of time it takes this group to apply the brakes when sober, I could then ask each member of my group to consume two alcoholic drinks and then again test their reaction time when driving, using the same methods. After the second measure of reaction time, I could ask each of my participants to consume two more alcoholic drinks and again test their reaction time. Now I have got 3 measures of reaction time which I can use to test whether drinking alcohol affects the reaction time. The problem can be addressed using the repeated-measures ANOVA. Notice that my dependent variable is always the same measure (reaction time), and my group is always the same (sample of 50 adults). The results of my repeated-measures ANOVA will tell me whether, on average, there are differences in reaction time across my three trials. What is sphericity? The assumption of sphericity in repeated-measures ANOVA can be likened to the assumption of homogeneity of variance in ANOVA, put simply we assume that the relationship between pairs of experimental conditions is similar (i.e. the level of dependence between pairs of groups are roughly equal. What is the effect of violating the assumption of sphericity? The effect of violating the assumption of sphericity is a loss of power (i.e. an increased probability of Type II error) and a test statistic (F-test) that simply cannot be compared to the tabulated values of the F-distribution.

Second Semester 2012 dsbriones

Page 1

BIOSTATISTICS
SPSS produces a test known as Mauchlys test, which test the hypothesis that the variances of the differences between conditions are equal.

If Mauchlys test statistic is significant (i.e. p-value <0.05) we conclude that there are significant differences between the variances of the differences: the condition of sphericity has not been met.. If Mauchlys test statistic is not significant (i.e. p-value >0.05) we can conclude that the assumption of sphericity is not violated.

Correcting for violations of sphericity Fortunately if data violate the sphericity assumption there are several corrections that can be applied to produce a valid F-test. All of these corrections involve adjusting the degrees of freedom associated with the F-value. There are three different estimates of sphericity used to correct the degrees of freedom: 1. Greenhouse and Geissers 2. Huynh and Feldts 3. The lower bound estimate Which correction should I use?

Look at the estimates of sphericity (Epsilon) in the SPSS output: When >0.75, use Huynh and Feldt correction. When <0.75 or nothing is known about , use Greenhouse and Geissers correction.

Second Semester 2012 dsbriones

Page 2

BIOSTATISTICS
SAMPLE PROBLEM: An undesirable effect of some antihistamine is drowsiness which can be measured by the flicker frequency of patients (number of flicks of the eyelids per minute. Low flicker frequency is related to drowsiness because the eyes are staying shut too long. One study reported for nine subjects, each subjected to meclastine (A), a placebo (B) and promethazine (C), in random order. At the time of the study, A was a new drug and C was a standard drug known to cause drowsiness. (In the actual experiment, the drugs were administered on three different days, but any possible day effect will be ignored in our analysis). Table 1. Flicker Frequency of 9 patients who were administered with Drugs A, B and C A B C 31.25 33.12 31.25 26.63 26 25.87 24.87 26.13 23.75 28.75 29.63 29.87 28.63 28.37 24.5 30.63 31.25 29.37 24 25.5 23.87 30.12 28.5 27.87 25.13 27 24.63 Are there significant differences in the effect of the 3 drugs on the patients? Test at a 0.05 level of significance.

SPSS Output of Repeated Measures ANOVA:

Mauchly's Test of Sphericity Measure:MEASURE_1
b

Assumption of Sphericity is met since pvalue>0.05.

Epsilon
a

Within Subjects Effect drug Mauchly's W .928

Approx. ChiSquare .525 df 2

Greenhouse-

Sig. .769

Geisser .933

Huynh-Feldt 1.000

Lower-bound .500

Second Semester 2012 dsbriones

Page 3

BIOSTATISTICS

Decision: Reject Ho, since p-value<0.05, at least one mean flicker frequency is significantly different.

Tests of Within-Subjects Effects Measure:MEASURE_1 Type III Sum of Source drug Sphericity Assumed Greenhouse-Geisser Huynh-Feldt Lower-bound Error(drug) Sphericity Assumed Greenhouse-Geisser Huynh-Feldt Lower-bound Squares 11.945 11.945 11.945 11.945 14.241 14.241 14.241 14.241 df 2 1.865 2.000 1.000 16 14.921 16.000 8.000 Mean Square 5.972 6.404 5.972 11.945 .890 .954 .890 1.780 F 6.710 6.710 6.710 6.710

Sig. .008
.009 .008 .032

Second Semester 2012 dsbriones

Page 4

BIOSTATISTICS
Reporting Repeated-Measures ANOVA: Mauchlys test indicated that the assumption of sphericity was met (p-value = 0.769), therefore F-test is applicable without correcting the degrees of freedom. The results show that the type of drug has a significant effect on the mean flicker time, F=6.710, pvalue=0.008. The results suggest that at least one mean flicker time is significantly different. Perform Post-Hoc Analysis to determine which mean flicker time is/are different. The post-hoc test can be done via paired t-test procedure but the p-value=0.05 must be divided by the number of times the paired t-test was done. In this case, A & B, A & C and B & C, so the paired t-test will be performed 3 times, hence the new level of significance =0.05/3 =0.016667.

Paired Samples Test Paired Differences 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Mean Pair 1 Pair 2 Pair 3 A-B A-C B-C -.61000 1.00333 1.61333 Std. Deviation 1.21090 1.50001 1.27437 Std. Error Mean .40363 .50000 .42479 Lower -1.54078 -.14968 .63376 Upper .32078 2.15634 2.59290 t -1.511 2.007 3.798 df 8 8 8

Sig. (2tailed) .169 .080 .005

The p-value=0.005 is the only Sig that is <0.016667, thus only the effects of Drugs B and C are significantly different..

What is the implication of this result?

Second Semester 2012 dsbriones

Page 5