It is commonly expected that as a person ages, their muscle mass decreases. To further examine this relationship in women, a nutritionist randomly selected 60 female patients from her clinic, 15 women from each 10-year age group beginning with age 40 and ending with age 80. For each patient, her age and current muscle mass was recorded. A scatterplot, least squares regression line, and coefficient of determination are as follows.
-Can these results be generalized to the population of all patients at this clinic?
A) Yes, since it was a random sample.
B) No, since the sample size was too small.
C) No, since only female patients were selected.
D) No, since age was not randomly assigned to patients.

Question

It is commonly expected that as a person ages, their muscle mass decreases. To further examine this relationship in women, a nutritionist randomly selected 60 female patients from her clinic, 15 women from each 10-year age group beginning with age 40 and ending with age 80. For each patient, her age and current muscle mass was recorded. A scatterplot, least squares regression line, and coefficient of determination are as follows. 
-Can these results be generalized to the population of all patients at this clinic?
A) Yes, since it was a random sample. 
B) No, since the sample size was too small. 
C) No, since only female patients were selected. 
D) No, since age was not randomly assigned to patients.

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The results cannot be generalized to the entire population of the clinic if only female patients were selected, as this introduces gender bias and does not represent the entire patient population.

It Is Commonly Expected That as a Person Ages, Their