Question

A study recruited 48 overweight adults aged 55 to 75 years, and divided them at random into two groups. Participants in one group drank 2 cups of water prior to their meals and the others did not. All participants ate a low-calorie diet during the study. Over the course of 12 weeks, water drinkers lost about 15.5 pounds, while the non-water drinkers lost about 11 pounds, on average. Here is a quote from the published study: “Due to an unintended greater random allocation of men to the water group than non-water group, additional analyses were performed to determine if weight loss outcomes differed between men and women in the two groups.” In this study,

a.gender is the response variable.

b.gender is a confounding variable.

c.all participants should have been male

d.the study is biased in favor of men

Answer 1