It is common wisdom that death of a spouse can lead to healthdeterioration of the partner left behind. Is common wisdom right orwrong in this case? To investigate, Maddison and Viola (1968)measured the degree of health deterioration of 132 widows in theBoston area, all of whose husbands had died at the age of 45-60within a fixed six-month period before the study. A total of 28 ofthe 132 widows had experienced a marked deterioration in health, 47had seen a moderate deterioration, and 57 had seen no deteriorationin health.Of 98 control women with similar characteristics who hadnot lost their husbands, 7 saw a marked deterioration in healthover the same time period, 31 experienced a moderate deteriorationof health, and 60 saw no deterioration.
1) Is this study observational or experimental?
2) State the null and alternative hypothesis
3) Which appropriate statistical test would be done for thisexperiment? Contingency analysis, t-test or goodness of fit?
