HLTH 200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Design Of Experiments, Experiment, Treatment And Control Groups
Document Summary
Community health studies often evaluate programs or policies. Elements: treatment or intervention, random assignment or not, control/comparison group, number of times you will assess the groups. Treatment group = intervention group = experimental group . The independent variable, group assignment, is being manipulated in an experimental design. Can quantify the change in the outcome variable. Can compare the amount of change between groups. Can confirm how well random assignment worked. Can see whether or not some factor that existed prior to the experiment affected the outcome, regardless of the treatment. Used because participants have expectations, and those expectations are a potential confounding influence. Examples: sugar pill, talking to a therapist, but the therapist does not use the technique of interest (behavioral intervention) How to determine if placebo effect existed: have three groups in your design. How can you come closer to establishing cause and effect in public health: temporal precedence.
