Question

1. Why did the design not include a placebo?

Does the lack of a placebo make the results questionable ?

Do you see any design flaws in your design?

Assume individuals with other serious health problems like cancer have a much harder time curing shingles than otherwise healthy individuals and that generally people older than 70 are also harder to cure. When the experiment is replicated why should this additional information be taken into account? Describe how this would affect the design of the experiment.

Answer 1

The lack of placebo makes the results of a study questionable. The purpose of a placebo group is to account for effects that do not depend on treatment, such as knowing that treatment is being received, professional attention, and expectations by those conducting the study. Without no placebo group, it is not adviced to infer the effect of the treatment.

The additional info about certain demographics need to be taken into account to make sure that these groups aren't ober represented in our samples. Our patients should have a random chance of being cured of ahingles, not biased towards failure or success.