A new study of more than 7000 civil servants has strengthened claims that people

Question

A new study of more than 7000 civil servants has strengthened claims that people at the bottom of the career ladder are most at risk from heart disease The theory contradicts the popular notion that stressed-out executive high-fliers pay for their success by becoming ill and dying young The reality seems to be that those at the bottom of the pile - with least control at work - are the most Evidence of the trend was originally seen in the first "Whitehall study" of London civil servants started in the late 1960s This showed an inverse relation between grade of employment and death from coronary heart disease Only about a quarter of the pattern could be explained by differences in smoking habits, blood pressure, cholesterol, body weight and physical activity. The researchers suggested that "psychosocial factors", particularly related to work, might be the most important element. To further test the hypothesis, a new study. "Whitehall II", was started 20 years after the first. The results, published today in the Lancet medical journal, confirmed a link between low-grade employment and heart disease. Is this report from The Toowoomba Chronicle describing an observational study or a true experiment? Explain. Carefully define the explanatory and response variables in this study. Is the data convincing? Can it be validly concluded from the Whitehall II study that being at the bottom of the career ladder increases a worker's risk of heart disease? Explain.

Explanation / Answer

A) In a true experiment investigators apply various treatments to experimental units and then proceed to observe the effect of the treatments on the experimental units.

In an observational study investigators observe subjects and measure variables of interest without assigning treatments to the subjects. The treatment that each subject receives is determined beyond the control of the investigator.

So, Here we can see that there is no experiment done to units aka civil servants or any treatments applied to them but these civil servants are observed for many years on the basis of various variable of interest and then studied on these terms. So, the given report is an " observation study."

b) Explanatory variable is the independent variable or the basis of the observation study. Here, independent variable is " quality of the work" or the "low grade employment". Response variable, here are the "vulnerability of getting a Heart Attack".

c) Data is pretty convincing here. Yes, it can be validly concluded form the Whitehall II study that being at bottom of career ladder increases worker risk of heart disease and it is because the work is conducted on 7000 civil servants so that will make variation very low and it is also corroborated by the first whitehall study which was a substantial 20 years later.

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