Question

CASE STUDY

Cats or dogs—which is the better pet for relieving stress? To answer this age-old question, your DSC decided to test whether they should start a “Furry Friends” program for emotional support during exams using dogs or cats. To test the difference, they selected 40 random people who didn’t have a pet at home. Each person was randomly assigned to either a cat treatment or a dog treatment and asked to drop by the test room for 30 min each day for two weeks. As such, there were 20 people assigned to a cat treatment and 20 people assigned to a dog treatment. A blood sample was taken from each participant at the start of the study to measure baseline levels of the stress hormone cortisol, and then again at the end of the trial two weeks later. The researchers wanted to know if the percent change in cortisol level over the two weeks was impacted by the treatment group the participants were in.

Identify the most appropriate study design.

Question 1 options:

	a) Cluster survey design
	b) Experimental study design
	c) Cohort survey design
	d) Case-control survey design
	e) Simple random survey

Answer 1

This is an experimental study design because researcher is influencing one variable to check the effect on other.

Option B is correct.