It appears that people who drink alcohol in moderation have lowerdeath rates tha

Question

It appears that people who drink alcohol in moderation have lowerdeath rates than either people who drink heavily or people whodo
not drink at all. The protection offered by moderate drinking isconcentrated
among people over 50 and on deaths from heart disease. TheNurses’ Health
Study played an essential role in establishing these facts forwomen. This part of
the study followed 85,709 female nurses for 12 years, during whichtime 2658 of
the subjects died. The nurses completed a questionnaire thatdescribed their diet,
including their use of alcohol. They were reexamined every twoyears.
Conclusion: “As compared with nondrinkers and heavydrinkers,
light-to-moderate drinkers had a signi?cantly lower risk ofdeath.”

A) Was this study an experiment? Explain your answer
B) What does "significantly lower risk of death" mean in simplelanguage?
C) Suggest some lurking variables that might be confounded with howmuch a person drinks. The investigators used advanced statisticalmethods to adjust for many such variables before concluding thatthe moderate drinkers really have a lower risk of death.

Explanation / Answer

A) Since behavior is observed, but no treatment isimposed, this is an observational study. B) "Significant" means unlikely to happen bychance. In this study, researchers determined that the factthat light-to-moderate drinkers had a lower death rate than theother groups is evidence of a real difference, rather, than merecoincidence.

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