As men age, their testosterone levels gradually decrease. This may cause a reduction in lean body mass, an increase in fat, and
other undesirable changes. Do testosterone supplements reverse some of these effects? A study in the Netherlands assigned 237 men aged 60 to 80 with low or low-normal testosterone levels to either a testosterone supplement or a placebo. The report in the Journal of the American Medical Association described the study as a "double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial." Explain each of these terms to someone who knows no statistics.1) Explain the term "double-blind" study?2) True or False: :"Randomized means that the subjects were selected randomly from the population of men aged 60 to 80 with low or low-normal testosterone levels."3) Explain the meaning of the term "placebo-controlled" trial?
1) A double - blind study is simply an experiment in which neither the participants nor the people who carry out the experiment know who is receiving any particular treatment. This method is usually used in order to prevent a biased view in research results.
2) True because randomized simply means that subjects were assigned to the group randomly.
3) Placebo - controlled trial simply means that there was a control group that received only a placebo treatment which is mainly designed not to have real effect.
