Question

A research study including 200 pregnant women ages 25 to 42 who will be on a restricted diet from the beginning of the pregnancy to the end of it (10 months). 100 of those women already have a child from a previous pregnancy with autism and the other 100 have never had any children with autism. The research study is to see if there is a correlation of eating habits and autism in their unborn children to see if a mothers eating habits increase/decrease the chances of having a child with autism?

What are the variables and method of research in this study?

Answer 1

The aim of the study is, if diet has any correlation with the birth of a child with autism. Both the groups of women will be on a restrictive diet, which means that both groups will have to be given the same diet for a period of 10 months. Both the groups should matched on age, education, and other sociodemographic areas. It must be ensured that extraneous variables are controlled, like exercise, sleep habits, work habits, medications etc. during the study. The independent variable is the diet of the participants and the dependent variable is effect of diet on birthing a child with autism. After the delivery, the number of children born with autism is noted in both groups. Finally, correlation analysis is conducted to see if there is any correlation between the diet and birth of a child with autism.