Table 2.12 comes from one of the first studies of the link between lung cancer and smoking, by Richard Doll and A. Bradford Hill. In 20 hospitals in London,UK, patients admitted with lung cancer in the previous year were queried about their smoking behavior. For each patient admitted, researchers studied the smoking behavior of a noncancer control patient at the same hospital of the same sex and within the same 5-year grouping on age. A smoker was defined as a person who had smoked at least one cigarette a day for at least a year.

a. Identify the response variable and the explanatory variable.

b. Identify the type of study this was.

c. Can you use these data to compare smokers with nonsmokers in terms of the proportion who suffered lung cancer? Why or why not?

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