On Jan 13, 2004, at 10:35 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:

> Is it possible for this question to be addressed in a randomized trial?
Depends on your sample size. How long will you be carrying out the
study? How big of a sample size are you aiming for?
> If randomization is not an option can anyone suggest another study
> design?
 From what you describe, it seems to me that randomized would be best.
>
> We are concerned that there are serious ethical implications in denying
> pumps to mothers in the control group when there are in fact pumps
> available.
The point of the study is to see if your new program or protocol works
and improves bf success. In order to do that, you are comparing it to
the program or protocol which already exists. You are not denying pumps
to the control group, you're just giving them what already exists now.
Sometime studies are stopped early because the results are so striking
that it is indeed unethical to deny the control group the new
treatment, but you're not there yet. First you have to see if it works
and how much better than the system that already exists.
--------------------------------
Naomi Bar-Yam Ph.D.
[log in to unmask]

Researcher, Writer, Educator
in Maternal and Child Health
--------------------------------

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