Question

In the 1990's, a long-term national women's health study looked at the relationship between use o Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), which contains estrogen, and incidence of breast cancer and heart attacks in middle-aged women. The study involved tracking the medical history of 93,676 women who were followed for 8 to 12 years. About half of the women reported that they had used HRT, and the other half had not. Those who had taken HRT had higher rates of breast cancer but they experienced far fewer heart attacks. This was a seemingly predictable finding since estrogen helps regulate cholesterol. Since more women die of heart attacks than breast cancer, the overall advantages seemed clear. "We thought most menopausal women should take HRT unless they were already at high risk of breast cancer," said the head of a panel that wrote the American College of Physician's 1992 guidelines. There was just one problem: nobody knew whether hormones made women healthy or whether healthy women were more likely to take hormones. Answer the following questions in the context of the problem. (15 points total)

Answer 1

Solution: 41舟 Conclusion In the given scenario, the entire set of women was taken under consideration and was followed for 8 to 12 years for observing the outcome. Thus, this is an observational study 42.b Conclusion No, in the given scenario, no principals of comparison or controls are used in the study, as the problem with the analysis for HRT still persists, as because nobody can claim whether hormone made women healthy or vice-versa.