Acupuncture and pregnancy A study sought to determine if

Chapter 6, Problem 6.26

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Acupuncture and pregnancy A study sought to determine if the ancient Chinese art of acupuncture could help infertile women become pregnant.13 One hundred sixty healthy women undergoing treatment with artifi cial insemination were recruited for the study. Half of the subjects were randomly assigned to receive acupuncture treatment 25 minutes before embryo transfer and again 25 minutes aft er the transfer. Th e remaining 80 subjects were instructed to lie still for 25 minutes aft er the embryo transfer. Results: In the acupuncture group, 34 women became pregnant. In the control group, 21 women became pregnant. (a) Explain how the three principles of experimental design were addressed in this study. (b) Th e diff erence in the percent of women who became pregnant in the two groups is statistically signifi cant. Explain to someone who knows little statistics what this means. (c) Why cant we conclude that acupuncture caused the diff erence in pregnancy rates?