Question

High cholesterol level in people can be reduced by exercise or by drug treatment. A pharmaceutical company has developed a new cholesterol-reducing drug. Researchers would like to compare its effects to the effects of the cholesterol-reducing drug that is currently available in the market. Volunteers who have a history of high cholesterol and who are currently not on medication will be recruited to participate in a study. a) Explain how you would carry out a completely randomized experiment for the study. b) Describe an experimental design that would improve the design in (a) by incorporating blocking. c) Can the experimental design in (b) be carried out in a double blind manner? Explain

Answer 1

a) Explain how you would carry out a completely randomized experiment for the study
- The volunteers will be listed alphabetically and assigned a number from 1 to n. Using the random selection method, select the persons at half of the population and assign them as the treatment group getting the new medication. The remaining population will be under the current medication. Measure everyone's cholesterol level and apply the needed medication for several months. Apply the process and compare the results.

b) Describe an experimental design that would improve the design in (a) by incorporating blocking
- The best design would be to block by cholesterol levels (ie, High, Moderately High, Very High)

 c) Can the experimental design in (b) be carried out in a double blind manner? 
Yes, everyone in each block randomly assigned to a treatment so volunteers are not aware of the medication they are receiving while administrators do not know what medication they are giving.