I award metals to the person who helps the most! I have a couple questions along with the answers I think are right. I need conformation though. Come get your metal!

Question

anonymous · Answer

A study of a new medication found that patients who took the medicine have reduced blood pressure, compared to those who did not take the medicine. The research team concluded that the medicine caused the reduction in blood pressure. Which study design did they most likely use?

 They most likely used an experiment with patients randomly assigned to take the medicine or not take the medicine.

 They most likely used an experiment with patients randomly assigned to groups based on their blood pressure.

 They most likely used a survey asking patients if they took the medicine and how their blood pressure was affected.

 They most likely used a survey asking patients if they took the medicine and if they felt the medication helped their blood pressure.

anonymous · Answer

I think D?

anonymous · Answer

@Darrius @phi

phi · Answer

the best study would be to pick patients who all have about the same high blood pressure and randomly assign them either to the group that takes the medicine or to the group that gets a placebo.  It should be "double blind" so that neither the patients nor the doctors know which people are in which group.  Then the blood pressure is measured periodically over time.  At the end of the study, the data is analyzed.

Does that sound like option D ?

anonymous · Answer

No. It sounds like b. Right?

phi · Answer

I would not assign according to blood pressure, which might mean:  lower blood pressure goes to group A  and higher to group B.

We would want the groups to be very close to one other  (blood pressure wise)
that way if the medicine has an effect we should see the groups have the same pressure at the start, but a difference (lower pressure for the medication group)

anonymous · Answer

Now it sounds kind of like c. But why would they do a survey? Isn't it better to do the experiments themselves with a control and variables and everything?

phi · Answer

I think it is the first choice.

anonymous · Answer

Oh okay. That makes more sense. Sorry, I can't focus that easily today for some reason. Thank you SO much for your help! If I could give you 100 metals, I would!

phi · Answer

yw.  

These questions are bit vague.

anonymous · Answer

Unfortunately :p

anonymous · Answer

Thanks for the metal! :)