AP STAT QUESTION DUE TODAY PLS HELPPPPP!!!!!

Question

A researcher is interested in determining the effectiveness of a new medication that may reduce blood pressure for individuals who have higher than average blood pressure. To determine the effectiveness of the medication, the researcher uses 240 volunteers who have high blood pressure. Volunteers are assigned randomly 50 milligrams of the medicine, 100 milligrams of the medicine, or a placebo. The subjects' blood pressure is measured at the beginning and end of the study. (10 points)

Part A: Identify the subjects, treatments, and response variable. (2 points)

Part B: What is the advantage of the random assignment of treatment? (3 points)

Part C: What is an advantage of using a placebo? (3 points)

Part D: What is a disadvantage of using volunteers? 

Answer 1

Part A:

Subjects: 330 volunteers with high cholesterol levels

Treatments: 1) 50 miiligrams of medicine, 2) 100 miiligrams of medicine, 3) placebo

Response variable: cholesterol levels of each individual before treatment compared to the start

Part B:

The advantage of random assignment of treatment is that through random assignment, the researcher is able to control the effect of any Confounding variable that may affect the 3 different treatments:(i) 50 miiligrams of medicine, (ii) 100 miiligrams of medicine,(iii) placebo. The random assignment of treatment overcomes the problem of biasness and everyone has an equal chance to be tested. Also it plays a major role in statistical analysis since where the majority of the tests are based on randomness assignment Condition.

Part C:

The advantage of using a placebo is that the responses of participants who have taken placebo provide a way to measure the actual effect of the treatment being tested. The placebo is a resemble drug which is not active and thus used as a threshold to compare other drugs ( 50mg, 100mgs )

Part D:

The disadvantage of using volunteers is Volunteer bias: The people who volunteer to participate in studies do not represent the population. The volunteers have some different characteristics as compared to those who do not volunteer. Testing of a drug should be based on diversed people. In the case of volunteers we may miss a particular age group. It is more favorable to target a diverse demographic.

Answer 2

subjects: individuals with high blood pressure. 50 mg, 100 mg or placebo blood pressure.

Random assignment of participants helps to ensure that any differences between and within the groups are not systematic at the outset of the experiment. Thus, any differences between groups recorded at the end of the experiment can be more confidently attributed to the experimental procedures or treatment.

The major advantage of using a placebo when evaluating a new drug is that it weakens or eliminates the effect that expectations can have on the outcome. If researchers expect a certain result, they may unknowingly give clues to participants about how they should behave. This can affect the results of the study.

The main disadvantage of an opportunity sample is that it will be biased towards a certain type of person as only people with a personal interest in the research topic will volunteer. The sample will not therefore be truly representative of the target population.