Question 1 (i)The university wants to know what proportion of it students think

Question

Question 1

(i)The university wants to know what proportion of it students think that studying
mathematics should be compulsory. A survey was sent via email to a simple random
sample of 500 students enrolled in the Arts faculty.
a) What is the population of interest to the university?
b) Is the sample representative of the population?
c) Discuss possible sources of bias (give two).

(ii)Researchers want to design a study to compare a topical cream (applied to the skin)
and a drug taken in capsule form for the treatment of a type of rash. Sixty volunteers
who have the rash have agreed to take part in the trial.
a) If each volunteer is given only one treatment, can the study be double-blind? Explain.
b) Could a placebo-controlled double-blind study be done? If not, why not? If so, give the design.

Explanation / Answer

a) The population of interest is the students studying in the university in all the departments.

b) The sample is not representative of the population as the sample taken is of the students studying in the Arts department only. The sample should have students from all the departments.

c) Possible sources of bias:

1.Non-representative bias: As we have a non-representative sample, we could have selection bias

2. Non-response bias: It is a bias that some type of students may reply to the email and some may not. Hence, we could face this bias.

ii) a) The study can't be double blind as the researchers and volunteers would definitely know that which treatment they are a part of. Hence, this information can't remain hidden from them.

b) A double blind study can't be done as for the reasons above but the placebo effect could be controlled. It could be done as the volunteers will not know which is the real medicine that the researchers are working on. The real medicine could be the drug or topical cream.

The researchers will be told that topical cream or the drug is the real medicine and hence the placebo effect could be controlled.

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