Selection of Study Design

Abstract

This paper is aimed at finding the contribution made by obesity towards development of type 2 diabetes mellitus because of the alarming increase of type 2 diabetes mellitus in U.S. The paper discuses the study design selected for executing the research, the reasons for selecting case-control-study design, its observational nature and its vulnerability to specific types of bias.

Selection of Study Design

Introduction

The relationship between obesity and diabetes mellitus has been the focus of debate for researchers and health practitioners because of the persistent increase in occurrence of diabetes mellitus in U.S. There is great need to determine the extent to which obesity contribute towards development of type 2 diabetes mellitus because U.S has the highest obesity rates among all the other countries suffering from this common health problem(Lazar, 2005). The selection of an appropriate study design has paramount significance in executing the whole research with great deal of accuracy and optimized internal validity (Creswell, 2009). The most suitable study design to examine the exact relationship between obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus would be a case-control study.

Hypothesis

HO: Obesity is a major contributor to the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus, and the prevalence of diabetes mellitus in the U.S. is increasing at an alarming rate.

HA: Obesity is not a major contributor to the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus, and the prevalence of diabetes mellitus in the U.S. is not increasing at an alarming rate.

Research Question

Is obesity a major contributor to the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus and whether the diabetes mellitus is increasing at an alarming rate in U.S because of obesity?

Components of Observational Study Design

The major components of an observational study design are described as follows

Cases

The cases are the people suffering from a particular disease or unhealthy physical condition (Creswell, 2009). In this research study, cases would be the people suffering from type 2 diabetes mellitus with obesity.

Control

Controls are the people similar to cases but they are relatively healthy (Creswell, 2009). In order to execute the research under discussion, controls would be the people with type 2 diabetes mellitus but without obesity.

Selection of Population

Selection of population holds a key position in determining the compatibility of selected study design with research question (Trochim, 2006). The population consisting on cases and controls would be selected from the same population but irrespective of the exposure of interest.

Studying Past Records

The researcher would then interview both cases and controls ...