[indian]

You have decided to confirm or refute the recent claims by medical journals that exclusive breast feeding for the first six months of life my protect against the development of atopy in children. You already have several children coming to the hospital with history of atopy and lack of breast feeding.
What control group would you choose to design your study?

a- children with atopy and who were breast fed in their infancy.
b- children without atopy and who were breast fed in their infancy.
c- children without atopy and visiting the outpatient clinic for routine physicals.
d- children with atopy and who were breast fed for three months only.
e- children without atopy and who were not breast fed in their infancy.

 

[DrLANC]

My weakest subject

I am thinking it's e

 

[indian]

The Correct Answer

The correct answer C.
Your control group should have the risk factor (lack of breast feeding) unknown. Then your study should find out whether it's really the lack of risk that have prevented the development of atopy (disease) or it's something else like lack of family history, or gestational age, or drug history, ...etc by comparing them to your case group (disease + risk factor).