Many people believe that teenagers prefer fried fast food for lunch to healthier alternatives such as salads, soups, and sandwiches. How could you design a study to investigate whether this is true among the people you know? What would be the advantages and disadvantages of using a survey in your research? What would be the advantages and disadvantages of doing an observational study?
Many people believe that teens prefer fast food over healthy. Is this true or could other factor be influencing their choices? Some of the factors that may contribute to a teens choice would be the price and the availability of the food. Because teens do not have a steady income they are more likely to choose the cheapest option and not the healthiest. The availability of the product is also a huge factor. School cafeterias often serve fast fatty food such as poutine, and fried chicken. A factor that often plays into a teens choice is their level of hunger. If one did not eat breakfast they will opt for the higher calorie option which is almost always less healthy. Some other factors are allergies, a limited amount of time to eat,
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In my observational study, I would try to eliminate all the factors that could otherwise contribute to inaccurate results. I would provide, 4 different ready to eat options, 2 fast food options and 2 healthy alternatives to help eliminate the factor of allergies. I would serve all options at no cost, eliminating the price factor. I would also balance the calories as well as I could so each meal had approximately the same number of calories eliminating the hunger factor. I would be sure to set a sufficient time period of 1 hour and have a place set up with tables and chairs enough for all teens eliminating the time restraint and no place to eat factors. All of the meals would come in convenient takeout containers for the teens who prefer to walk around while