3. The National Halothane Study was a major investigation of anesthetics used in

Question

3. The National Halothane Study was a major investigation of anesthetics used in surgery. The study obtained records of 850,000 operations that had been performed in 34 major hospitals. The records showed the following death rates for four anesthetics: Anesthetic Death Rate 1.7% | 1.7% 3.6% 1.9% There is a clear association between the anesthetic used and the death rate of patients. Anesthetic C appears dangerous (a) Is this an observational study or an experiment? Why? (b) When the study looked at other variables that are confounded with a doctor's choice of anesthetic, it found that Anesthetic C was not causing extra deaths. Suggest a variable that might influence both the anesthetic a patient receives and the death rate.

Explanation / Answer

a) Observational Study because There is no random assignment to the different treatments. Only the records were reviewed to determine if there is an association between treatment and death rates.

b) Type of surgery, length of surgery, (maybe longer operations require anesthetic C), age of patient, (maybe older patients respond better to anesthetic C) patient allergy to certain anesthetics, how healthy the patient was before the surgery

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