Cigarette Smoking Leads to Increased Incidences of

¶ … cigarette smoking leads to increased incidences of lung cancer. The reason(s) behind the study are twofold; one, to see if there is a decided difference in the number of people who smoke and do not smoke, and two, whether that noted difference in smoking vs. non-smoking leads to a higher or lower number of cancer incidences among the study participants.

The study will be large-scale and will include a wide diversity of individuals in order to provide a relatively accurate picture of the overall, and categorized, number of individuals developing cancer when compared to whether they are smokers or not. Since this will be a cross-sectional study it will completed with little expense to the researcher and may provide data that can be useful in determining future processes.

The funding for this study is rather limited, and because of that (along with other reasons), the cross-sectional study is the most beneficial design method to use. Another reason for using the cross-sectional approach is that the population is large and will be bulky to handle using any other method. The population includes all patients of a local Cancer Center for the last five years. The participants are projected to number approximately 1000 former and current patients of the center. It is not a stratified survey.

The number of participants chosen for the study is based solely on how many cancer patients were seen at the center during the five-year time frame. A non-random survey will be used since all the former and current cancer patients at the center can choose to participate. A random survey would not be as efficient in this particular study because the population would likely be skewed more towards one direction or another. A non-random survey in this study will provide much more accurate and comprehensive data.

The researcher will develop a data-gathering instrument for this study. The instrument will be designed to efficiently gather data that provides a clear and comprehensive picture of the number of patients who have smoked (or have not) and who have then developed cancer (or have not developed cancer).

The content area to be ascertained includes who has smoked or not, who has cancer and who does not, how much was smoked, how often and how long an individual has or has not smoked will also be determined with the data gathering instrument. To field test the instrument, the survey will be submitted to a team of three professionals who have expertise in the medical and/or data gathering communities.

They will be asked to determine if the survey will efficiently and effectively collect the data for which it has been designed. The study will be conducted over a four-week timeframe. This timeframe will include the design of the study, the creation and field testing of the survey, the administration and collection of data, and the analysis of the data. It will also provide enough leeway to ensure that the researcher has time to create and write a summary of the entire process.

The variables in the study will include who has or has not smoked, how long a timeframe the smoker(s) smoked, how many packs of cigarettes (or cigars) were smoked on a regular basis, and what types of smoking took place. These variables will all be cross-referenced on the survey through a thorough and complete design process. Analyzing the data will take place through the use.