Read/review the following resources for this activity:
Textbook: Chapter 11
Lesson
Instructional material in the Workbook
Articles:
What Are Clinical Trials and Studies? Links to an external site. (National Institute on Aging., n.d.)
Myopia and Ambient Lighting at Night Links to an external site. (Quinn et al., 1999)
Myopia and Ambient Night-Time Lighting Links to an external site. (Zadnik et al., 2000)
Initial Post Instructions
Introduction
As the text (Bassham, 2023) points out, causal reasoning is used in clinical studies. As a professional in the health field, you will undoubtedly be referring to cause-and-effect studies for the rest of your professional life. In this discussion, you are asked to expand and deepen your understanding of clinical studies.
In 1999, a study (Quinn et al., 1999) on the causes of myopia appeared in the prestigious journal Nature. The study received widespread publicity in leading newspapers, such as the New York Times, and on television outlets, such as CBS and CNN. Within a year, another article in Nature followed up the 1999 study (Zadnik et al., 2000). The studies had dramatically different findings.
For this initial post, using what you have learned from the text, as well as any other sources, you may find useful (including the articles in the Required Resources), analyze and evaluate the methodology of both studies—Quinn et al. (1999) and Zadnik et al. (2000)—and how methodology affected the differences in the conclusions the researchers arrived at.
Address these requirements in your initial post:
Which of the studies do you find more persuasive
Explain why you found one of the studies more persuasive. For example,
How each of the studies was designed? Were the studies generalizations, causal studies, or comparative studies?
How did the designs differ, and why did they yield entirely different results?
How was data collected?
What were the variables in each study?
Remember, your post should exhibit an understanding of causal reasoning, inductive reasoning based on statistics, and analogical reasoning (how these studies are alike and how they differ).
Hint: Newspaper reports about both studies can be found through an Internet search using all of the following terms: .