Question

Suppose a research team is interested in the behavioral ramifications that may develop from women and young girls receiving the HPV vaccine at an early age. The research hypothesis is that women and girls that receive the vaccine are less likely to follow federal recommendations that mandate these women to undergo regular screening for cervical cancer. The research team decides to investigate this relationship by following a group of women and girls aged 12-21 for up to 10 years and observing their behaviors in relation to cervical screening. The team receives a list of women and girls in this age range from their local legislators, and divides the group into 4 different age ranges. The team then sampled 100 women and girls from each age range and followed them for the full study period. What type of study design is this? Is there a sampling methodology use and if so what kind? What are the exploratory and response variables?

Answer 1

What type of study design is this?

This is an observational study design because this study is based on observing the behaviors of the participants in relation to cervical screening. There is no actual experiment is conducted and the researcher used the previous data from local legislators for this study.

Is there a sampling methodology use and if so what kind?

Yes, there is a sampling methodology used. Researchers use the stratified random sampling for the selection of 100 women and girls from four different strata with four different age ranges.

What are the exploratory and response variables?

For this research study, the explanatory variable or independent variable is given as HPV vaccination at an early age (‘whether the women or girl receive the HPV vaccine at an early age’).

The response variable or dependent variable for this research study is given as ‘screening of cervical cancer’.