Hypothesis Selection

Your four-student SO team will select a hypothesis to test epidemiologically. 

You can select a pre-approved hypothesis or you can form your own hypothesis from lists of pre-approved exposure variables and outcome variables.

The pre-approved hypotheses from which you can select your team’s hypothesis are:

• Students who regularly eat school cafeteria food have a higher-fat diet.
• Students who participate in team sports get a better night’s rest.
• Students who have a low-fat diet are more physically active.
• Students who regularly watch TV evening news or regularly read a major newspaper (hard copy or online) know more facts about the H1N1 pandemic.
• Students who exercise regularly have higher academic performance.
• Students with high self-esteem have a lower-fat diet.

If you would rather form your own hypothesis, you can select one pre-approved exposure variable and one outcome variable from the lists below.

Please note from the lists above that in some cases, a given variable can either be an exposure variable or an outcome variable.

No matter how you select your hypothesis, make sure it is of genuine interest to you because you will be spending a great deal of your time and energy exploring it.

Your hypothesis statement should state the hypothesized relationship between the exposure variable and the outcome variable.  In addition, you should do a bit of research to be sure that there is some theoretical reasoning or prior research to support your hypothesis.