Ashley and Sanjay are donating blood at a local hospital. As a standard practice, the blood
is screened for anemia (low levels of red blood cells), and the results are given to each
donor as a z score, ranging from negative scores (low amounts of red blood cells, anemic)
to positive scores (high amounts of red blood cells, not anemic). Ashley's z score is -1 while
Sanjay's z score is 0.2. Who has anemia?
a. Ashley
b. Sanjay
c. both
d. neither
well, who has a negative z score?
A negative Z score does not necessarily indicate anemia. It would have to be significantly low, P < .05,
Z < -1.96, to be considered anemic.
To determine who has anemia, we need to understand what the z-scores represent. A z-score measures how many standard deviations a particular data point is away from the mean. In this case, the z-score represents the deviation of the blood donor's red blood cell levels from the average.
A negative z-score indicates a below-average value, while a positive z-score indicates an above-average value. Therefore, an individual with a negative z-score has lower red blood cell levels than the average, indicating anemia. On the other hand, an individual with a positive z-score has higher red blood cell levels than the average and is not anemic.
Given that Ashley's z-score is -1, she has anemia because her red blood cell levels are below the average. However, Sanjay's z-score is 0.2, which implies that his red blood cell levels are above average, indicating that he does not have anemia.
In conclusion, the answer is:
a. Ashley