Can someone solve this problem thanks 7. Does eating oatmeal reduce the level of
ID: 3366621 • Letter: C
Question
Can someone solve this problem thanks
7. Does eating oatmeal reduce the level of bad cholesterol (LDL)? Here are two ways to study this question. A researcher finds 500 adults over 40 who regularly eat oatmeal or products made from oatmeal. She matches each with a similar adult who does not regularly eat oatmeal or products made from oatmeal. She measures the bad cholesterol (LDL) for each adult and compares both groups. Another researcher finds 1000 adults over 40 who do not regularly eat oatmeal or products made from oatmeal and willing to participate in a study. She assigns 50046 of these to a diet that includes a daily breakfast of oatmeal. The other 500 continue their usual habits. After 6 months, she compares changes in LDL levels. a. b. Identify what method of data collection the researchers used in both cases and justify your answer Why does the experiment give more useful information about whether oatmeal reduces LDL? i. ii.Explanation / Answer
(i) the first is an observational study and the second is an experiment.
In the first study, subjects are assigned to groups based on their own habits; treatments (eating oatmeal or not) are not imposed on them. In the second setting, a treatment is imposed: each subject is randomly assigned to eat oatmeal or to continue with his/her “usual habits.”
(ii) In the observational study, there may be other factors (e.g., genetic background, other dietary habits) that make one more likely to eat oatmeal and less (or more) likely to have high LDL. This means we could not conclude that oatmeal causes lower LDL; it may simply be a “symptom” of some other factor.