Question

A researcher wants to determine whether living close to your high school as a student is associated with higher rates of academic achievement in high school.   

(a)  Briefly explain why this study cannot realistically be performed as a randomized experiment.

(b)  Explain briefly how this study could be conducted as a retrospective observational study.

(c)  Explain briefly how this study could be conducted as a prospective observational study.

(d)  Which of the two observational study options in parts (b) or (c) do you prefer and why?  

Answer 1

a) The study is for high school students to test whether living close to high school is associated with the performance of the student in high school. The above study can not be performed experimentally because the researcher can not allocate a student randomly to live a student close to their high school or not to live close. It is out of control to the researcher.

b) This study can be done by going through the living address and performance of the students of a high school for those who have passed or appeared in the high school examination. This is also known as the retrospective study.

c) A researcher can think of conducting a prospective study for those students who are going to appear in the upcoming high school examination having the living address of the students studying in a particular school following till the high school examination to record the performance in the exam.

d) It depends on many other factors to select any one type of study among the two. But if I am asked to go for one I would like to conduct the prospective study because in the prospective study we can control many background factors that might have to modify the effect of performance in the retrospective study. In the prospective study, things are monitored continuously so they can be observed in a better way.