What is the independent variable in an experiment designed to compare the differences in health outcomes between patients visited in the hospital by therapy cats and patients who are not?

Answer 1

Whether a therapy cat has visited the patients would be the independent variable. A secondary independent variable, not as readily noticeable in this question, is whether the patients saw, touched, or otherwise interacted with a therapy cat or cats.

For example, 6 patients out of 100 patients visited by the cat were sleeping; those 6 patients never saw, touched, or interacted with the cats. The sample could not include those 6 patients.

Further, other variables would also be independent and need to be accounted for, including:

• the patient's mobility; the benefits would be harder to assess with a paralyzed patient
• the patient's mental state; the benefits would be harder to assess with a patient who is having active hallucinations or severe dementia
• the patient's medications; a patient given sedative medications would not be alert to see or interact with a therapy pet
• And, the exact behaviors being studied need to be pre-defined in order to properly assess the "outcomes".

Answer 2

A