Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2017 / iii / Paper 207 / 2 / a / i

A Type I error is rejecting a true null hypothesis. Here it means declaring a statistical association between the biomarker and bowel cancer when, in the population and under the association model being tested, there is no statistical association. It is a false positive association finding, not merely a large estimation error. A test with level $0.05$ limits this probability to $0.05$ under the null hypothesis, subject to valid calibration; the p-value is not the probability that the null hypothesis is true.