Research Design and Study Plan Outline for Investigating the Relationship Between Breastfeeding and Childhood Overweight

Please read the following paper: Grummer-Strawn LM, Mei Z; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance System. Does breastfeeding protect against pediatric overweight? Analysis of longitudinal data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance System. Pediatrics. 2004 Feb;113(2):e81-6. Answer the following questions with regard to the methods and findings in the article.  What type of study design is this? Identify three defining design elements of the study.  Identify the outcome (e.g., disease) and exposure under investigation. How were they operationalized?  What measures of association (e.g., odds ratio) did the authors use to present their findings?  Choose a measure of association that is important to the authors’ conclusion and interpret it.  Describe how the exposure and outcome were measured.  Describe: 1) any potential measurement problems for the exposure and outcome, and 2) explain how any measurement problems may have affected the direction and magnitude of the associations. Be sure to explain your logic in detail. If you think there is no evidence of exposure or outcome measurement problems, please explain.  Discuss presence or absence of design and/or execution problems with this study, such as confounding and selection bias, including how they may have affected the direction and magnitude of the estimate of the association between exposure and disease and/or the interpretation of the results of this study.  Overall give an assessment of the validity of any potential causal inferences that could be made from the associations in this study. Please justify your assessment and indicate if there is any other analysis or information which, if provided, would inform the validity of any causal inference. Answer length: 5 pages (not including references, figures, tables, etc.) so it is highly encouraged that you include external figures, tables, and/or other diagrams or visuals to support your answer. Your score will be based on how well you demonstrates a capacity to apply knowledge and skills gained in your coursework, ability to synthesize information, and show adequate understanding of the subject matter.