Exploring the capability of MS EXCEL for constructing bias-corrected and accelerated (BCA) bootstrap confidence intervals to aid in decision-making during an emergency

Decision-making during an emergency requires obtaining reliable information in a short span of time from available data or by collecting new data. However. decison-making during an emergency can be impeded by a lack of data, specialized software, or a lack of staff with expertise in statistical software and analysis. MS EXCEL is popular software wirh a large user base and some statistical capabilities. However, the capability to create bias-correctcd and accelerated (BCA) bootstrap confidence intervals is largely under-reported in the scientific literature. Exploring the capabilities of EXCEL to create BCA bootstrap confidence intervals can potentially help emergency service providers through reliable data analysis. This paper attempts to construct a 95% confidence interval using the BCA bootstrap confidence interval method in EXCEL on data collected rapidly by convenience sampling. It was found that by creating suitable macros a BCA bootstrap confidence interval can be seamlessly created on any data using EXCEL. The paper thus debunks the popular notion that BCA bootstrap cannot be peformed in EXCEL owing to a lack of in-built functions. Also, the methodology and findings of the paper can be used to teach the capability of EXCEL for constructing BCA bootstrap confidence intervals.