3.8

Question 1

Independent variable

Answer 1

Variable deliberately changed

Question 2

Dependant variable

Answer 2

Variable that is measured

Question 3

What are clinical trials used for

Answer 3

Clinical trials are used to make sure a vaccine or drug treatment is safe for use. It also establishes possible side effects on people and wether or not the treatment actually works.

Question 4

How to avoid skewing results clinical trials

Answer 4

Clinical trials are
Randomised
Double blind
Placebo controlled

Question 5

Randomised clinical trials meaning

Answer 5

Selection of groups is randomised to prevent bias in age, weight, sex

Question 6

Double blind trials meaning

Answer 6

Neither patient or researcher knows who is getting real treatment. Helps prevent biased interpretation of results

Question 7

Placebo controlled trials meaning

Answer 7

Control group is not given any real medication, they are given a placebo. Neither knows who’s getting real treatment

Question 8

A trial may be declared inconclusive if

Answer 8

Sample size too small

Results not statistically different from placebo group

Question 9

What are error bars

Answer 9

Error bars represent the standard deviation from the mean (the distance to the mean of the highest and lowest data collected)

Question 10

Significance of error bars

Answer 10

If errors bars overlap with each other usually results are considered not to be significantly different (same result achieved with both variables)