- Recognize observational studies and list the key components
- Describe confounding factors that may influence an association
Observational Studies
The Main Idea
Observational studies collect data by observing an outcome. They do not manipulate the variables or randomly assign the participants to treatments.
Because of this, observational studies cannot conclude that one variable has caused a change in another. Only a well-designed experiment can conclude a causal association between variables.
We can identify an observational study by the lack of treatment and control groups. See the video below for a detailed explanation.