Statistics question: In a study designed to test the effectiveness of acupuncture for treating migraine...?
In a study designed to test the effectiveness of acupuncture for treating migraine, 142 subjects were treated with acupuncture and 80 subjects were given a sham treatment. The number of migraine attacks for the acupuncture treatment group had a mean of 1.8 and a standard deviation of 1.4. The numbers of migraine attacks for the sham treatment group had a mean of 1.6 and a standard deviation of 1.2. i) Construct the 95% confidence interval estimate for the mean number of migraine attacks for those treated with acupuncture. ii) Construct the 95% confidence interval estimate of the mean number of migraine attacks for those given a sham treatment. iii) What do the results suggest about the effectiveness of acupuncture? Why?
I've seen studies that claim Acupuncture is no better than a placebo, as their "sham" acupuncture gets similar results as the real thing. They used a small foam pad stuck to the skin-- in the "real" Acupuncture, the needle penetrates through the foam into the skin, whereas in the "sham" acupuncture the needle only goes into the foam, not the skin (the "patient" doesn't know the difference). I have to smile when I see that the experimenters used actual Acupoints for the "sham" study, because they still put an antenna (needle) over the Acupoint-- the effect was much the same because, just as when you walk near the radio or reach for the TV antenna, the signal becomes clearer, without actually touching the antenna-- just being in close proximity. Good try, but it only demonstrates that the experimenters did not understand the electromagnetic nature of the body or the Meridian system.
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