The sample of women with breast cancer in the previous question was drawn at random from all women attending one surgeon's breast cancer clinic at a private
Hospital in Montreal, Canada.To which target population might the prevalence result
Apply?
A)Attendees of this clinic only
B)All women with breast cancer attending this hospital
C)All Montreal women with breast cancer
D)All Canadian women with breast cancer
E)Any women with breast cancer anywhere in the world

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

This is, as is often the case when trying to identify to whom a set of
findings applies (their generalisability), and/or whom it was intended to apply to, not
wholly clear.We would certainly hope that it would apply to all women at the clinic in
which the study was done, as this is also the sampling frame, and probably to all women
attending that hospital (unless there was something special about the clinic chosen).
But it is likely the authors hoped that their findings were more widely applicable, and at
least to Montreal women overall.However, given the sample comes from only one
clinic in one private hospital in the city, even this may be dubious, as women who
attend a private hospital are likely to have more education than those attending public
hospitals.And generalising more widely is even more hazardous.[Note: if the finding
from the clinic was related to biology, e.g.measuring hormone levels in these women,
this might indeed hold among all women, everywhere.]

The Sample of Women with Breast Cancer in the Previous