The purpose of this study was to assess the effects among a population of elderly women of an educational intervention related to osteoporosis on the population within the contexts of (1) health care knowledge related to osteoporosis, (2) health care beliefs related to osteoporosis, and the efficacy of self care related to osteoporosis. Three hypotheses were tested in the conduct of this study. These hypotheses were stated as follows:
1. Elderly women who received osteoporosis teaching concerning calcium have more knowledge about calcium than elderly women without calcium instructions.
2. Strength of health care beliefs related to osteoporosis susceptibility, seriousness, benefits, barriers, and health motivation of elderly women with osteoporosis instruction differ from those without osteoporosis instruction.
3. Elderly women who receive osteoporosis teaching concerning calcium have self efficacy differences from those subjects not receiving the instruction.
The results of the research performed are presented in this chapter. Two sets of results are presented. First, the results of the hypothesis testing are presented. Second, supplementary results related to the research problem are presented.
Researchers and others use statistics in three general ways. These general ways are as follows: 1. Statistics are used to describe events. Descriptive statistics describe the performance or activity of one group or class, without attempting to make generalizations about other groups or classes.
2. Statistics are used to infer causes or future events. Inferential statistics permit the findings with respect to one set of relationships to be extended to other relationships and to generalize findings and conclusions on the basis of statistical inference.
3. Statistics are used to enhance the decision making process. Decision theory used in conjunction with statistics provides administrators, managers, professiona...