Question at position 10 Is skipping breakfast bad for your health? A study of a random sample of 24,011 U.S. adults over age 40 showed that skipping breakfast was associated with a greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. Based on the results of this study, should we conclude that skipping breakfast causes a greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease?Yes. This is an experiment and not an observational study. The researchers assigned U.S. adults over age 40 to skip breakfast or not so we can conclude that skipping breakfast causes a greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.Yes. This is an observational study and not an experiment. The researchers assigned U.S. adults over age 40 to skip breakfast or not so we can conclude that skipping breakfast causes a greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.Yes. This is an observational study and not an experiment. The researchers didn’t assign U.S. adults over age 40 to skip breakfast or not so we can conclude that skipping breakfast causes a greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.No. This is an experiment and not an observational study. The researchers assigned U.S. adults over age 40 to skip breakfast or not so we cannot conclude that skipping breakfast causes a greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.No. This is an observational study and not an experiment. The researchers didn’t assign U.S. adults over age 40 to skip breakfast or not so we cannot conclude that skipping breakfast causes a greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.

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Here is the question and the full set of answer options restated for clarity.
Question: Is skipping breakfast bad for your health? A study of a random sample of 24,011 U.S. adults over age 40 showed that skipping breakfast was associated with a greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. Based on the results of this study, should we conclude that skipping breakfast causes a greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease?
Options:
1) Yes. This is an experiment and not an observational study. The researchers assigned U.S. adults over age 40 to skip breakfast or not so we can conclude that skipping breakfast causes a greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.
2) Yes. This is an observational study and not an experiment. The researchers assigned U.S. adults over age 40 to skip breakfast or not so we can conclude that skipping breakfast causes a greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.
3) Yes. This is an observational study and not an experiment. The researchers didn’t assign U.S. adults over age 40 to skip breakfast or not so we can conclude that skipping breakfast causes a greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.
4) No. This is an experiment and not an observational study. The researchers assigned U.S. adults over age 40 to skip breakfast or not so we cannot conclude that skipping breakfast causes a greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.
5) No. This is an observational study and not an experiment. The researchers didn’t assign U.S. adults over age 40 to skip breakfast or not so we cannot conclude that skipping breakfast causes a greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.
Now, let’s examine each option in turn and unpack the reasoning behind them.
Option 1: Yes. This is an experiment and not an observational study. The researchers assigned U.S. adults over age 40 to skip breakfast or not so we can conclude that skipping breakfast causes a greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.
- Why this is not correct: The key flaw is that the study described involved a random sample of adults and reported an association between skipping breakfast and higher cardiovascular mortality, but the description does not indicate that breakfast-skipping was randomly assigned by the researchers in a controlled experiment. If participants were not randomly assigned to skip or not skip breakfast by the investigators, the study is observational, not experimental. Inferring causation from a non-randomized assignment is inappropriate because confounding factors could explain the association.
- What tends to cause confusion here: People may conflate correlation with causation, or assume random assignment just because a study mentions a large sample. However, observational studies can still identify associations without manipulating exposure.
Option 2: Yes. This is an observational study and not an experiment. The researchers assigned U.S. adults over age 40 to skip breakfast or not so we can conclude that skipping breakfast causes a greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.
- Why this is not correct: The phrase "observational study" is correct, but the claim that researchers assigned participants to skip breakfast contradicts the nature of observational studies, where assignment is not controlled by the researchers. Therefore the assertion that we can conclude causation is invalid. The combination of incorrect study design description and causal claim makes this option false.
Option 3: Yes. This is an observational study and not an experiment. The researchers didn’t assign U.S. adults over age 40 to skip breakfast or not so we can conclude that skipping breakfast causes a greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.
- Why this is not correct: While it correctly identifies the study as observational and notes that there was no assignment to skip or not, it still asserts that we can conclude causation (that skipping breakfast causes greater risk). In observational studies, we typically cannot establish causation due to potential confounding factors. Therefore, the causal claim is unsupported.
Option 4: No. This is an experiment and not an observational study. The researchers assigned U.S. adults over age 40 to skip breakfast or not so we cannot conclude that skipping breakfast causes a greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.
- Why this is not correct: This option inverts the study design. If researchers had assigned participants to skip breakfast, that would be an experiment; however, the option also claims we cannot conclude causation, which would be inconsistent with a well-conducted randomized experiment showing causality. Since the study is not described as an experiment, this option mislabels the design and misstates the potential for causal inference in a randomized context.
Option 5: No. This is an observational study and not an experiment. The researchers didn’t assign U.S. adults over age 40 to skip breakfast or not so we cannot conclude that skipping breakfast causes a greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.
- Why this is correct: This option accurately identifies the study as observational, meaning there was no random assignment to skip breakfast. In observational studies, we observe associations but cannot reliably claim causation because of possible confounding variables (e.g., overall diet, activity, health status). Therefore, concluding that skipping breakfast causes higher cardiovascular mortality would be unwarranted based on this study design alone. The wording correctly refrains from causal inference and aligns with standard interpretations of observational data.
In summary, options that incorrectly label the study design or imply a causal conclusion from an observational design are misleading. The only choice that accurately characterizes the study as observational and appropriately cautions against inferring causation is option 5, which states it is observational and that we cannot conclude causation because there was no assignment to breakfast-skipping by the researchers.

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