Question

A medical researcher asked 50 people with painful, arthritic knees to rub a cream that contained vitamin E on their knees for two weeks. At the end of the two weeks, she asked the subjects whether their knee pain improved, stayed about the same, or worsened during the treatment period. All 50 subjects reported improvement in their knee pain. Based on this information, which of the following statements is true?a. The researcher should find a peer-review group to analyze her findings about the vitamin E-containing cream as a treatment for knee pain.

b. The researcher shouldn't report her findings, until she uses a single-blind study to test the vitamin E-containing cream.
c. The results about the benefits of using a vitamin E cream for knee pain are questionable, because the researcher didn't have a control group.
d. The results of this study prove that rubbing a cream that contains vitamin E on arthritic knees is a good way to relieve knee pain.

Answer 1

The correct answer is c. The results about the benefits of using a vitamin E cream for knee pain are questionable because the researcher didn't have a control group.

Step-by-step explanation:

In medical research and especially when products, treatments or similar are tested it is necessary to have one control and one experimental group. In this way, the researcher uses the product with one of the groups (experimental group) and compares the result of this group with the one obtained in a control group that does not receive the treatment or product tested. According to this, the medical researcher that tested a cream with vitamin E would not be valid because the researcher did not have a control group and therefore the benefits he/she determine are questionable as these were not compared to the ones in the control group.