Question

I see a news item headlined with “Study proves that drinking at least 2 cups of coffee a day improves mental function.” The few details that are mentioned state that, for convenience, the researchers used a group of their colleagues as experimental subjects, 80% of whom were male. Since there were not very many test subjects available, all of the participants in the study drank more than 2 cups of coffee per day. A few subjects drank coffee all day and resulted in very strange results, so they were ignored. The study was funded by the Coffee Merchants Association, who happen to be the employers of the researchers.

There are some problems here!

In the following questions, you are asked to distinguish between problems that are obvious and certain, and those which, while they may look “fishy”, may or may not actually be real problems. Think carefully about this distinction.

List 4 definite problems with this study and the headline taken from it.

List 2 factors related to the study which may possibly be of concern.

Answer 1

Definite problems include:

1)-sleeplessness.

2)-Tachycardia.

3)-Raised blood pressure.

4)-increased micturition frequency.

The factors of concern in this study include:

1) assessment of maximum tolerance capacity of individual in different age groups.

2)side effects can be studied.