A researcher wanted to know whether people in the U.S. who had had many dental X

Question

A researcher wanted to know whether people in the U.S. who had had many dental X-rays were better informed about the risks of radiation from those X-rays than people who had had few or none. Ads were placed in community newspapers, on line at information tech websites, and in a selection of dental offices nationwide for volunteers to log in and complete a survey asking those questions. To her surprise, the researcher found that in her sample, there was no association between the number of X-rays a subject had had, and that subject’s knowledge level about radiation exposure. The researcher reviewed her findings with her faculty advisor, who agreed with her that her results were likely to be inaccurate. What type of bias is this?

Explanation / Answer

This is example of Sampling Bias.

The method being used in order to collect the data is not going to take into consideration the responses of those people who do not have access to the internet and hence they cant take the survey. So the sample collected using the described methodology is not sufficiently representative of the true population. In particular, it is not difficult to concieve that relatively older age people will not be having frequent access to internet.However, it is highly likely that these group of old people are the ones who have undergone most dental x rays than others. So if the sample doesnt include this extremely critical subgroup of population, there will certainly be Sampling bias in the result.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse A
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.