For this assignment, you will be reading a brief research article, "Myopia and Ambient Lighting at...

Question

For this assignment, you will be reading a brief research article, "Myopia and Ambient Lighting at Night" (Quinn, Shin, Maguire, & Stone, 1999), then analyzing the findings presented in it.

Statisticians have often brought up a concern in research: Correlation is not causation. There are instances in which researchers have correlated two variables and found their relationship to be statistically significant. However, they might correlate with each other for reasons other than cause and effect. The independent variable might not be causing an increase or decrease in the dependent variable. A confounding factor may be at play.

In 1999, university researchers published a paper in trying to determine a cause for myopia. They investigated whether having a night left on at night is a predictor for myopia later in life. After reading through their abbreviated research paper (linked above), answer the following questions:

Was this an observational study or experimental study? Why?(50-75 words)
What did you interpret to be the population the researchers were targeting?(50-75 words)
What was the conclusion of the study?(50-75 words)
What did the authors note as limitations to their study?(50-75 words)
The authors noted that genetic factors most likely played a role in myopia. Based on this likely possibility, what is a potential confounding variable in this study? In other words, what might have caused the authors to see larger cases of myopia for those with ambient light exposure at night time? XXXXXXXXXXwords)

Malvika · Accepted Answer

Myopia and Ambient Lighting at Night
Analysis of the Findings
Observational Study
The study by Quinn et al. (1999) was an observational type of study because they did not conduct a research but made observations that founded a co-relation between Myopia and ambient lighting at night. In an observational study, the researcher just observes the facts and figures that he obtains from the people under study (Evon et al., 2017). While in an experimental study, the researcher introduces an intervention in the study group and then observes the effects. As the researchers did not put any intervention in their study, thus this study is only an observational study. 
Targeted Population
Quinn et al. (1999) made an observational study to find the co-relation between myopia and ambient lighting at night and their main population were children. The researchers took their information from parents of children aged 2-16 years, median age being 8 years. These were the parents who visited the Outpatient Department in a university pediatric ophthalmology clinic. Thus,

For this assignment, you will be reading a brief research article, "Myopia and Ambient Lighting at Night" (Quinn, Shin, Maguire, & Stone, 1999), then analyzing the findings presented in it....

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