Jan 24: Assignment 2 Questions

The trial used “semi-standardized” acupuncture. It seems like the success of acupuncture in the treatment group would depend on initial diagnostics – since this determined the course of treatment. This might lead to more variable results.

How comparable was the pilot trial used for sample size calculations? It seems like the pilot used TCM, which the paper suggests is more effective than semi-standardized acupuncture.

Is it really true that age has does not impact migraine symptoms and severity? I wonder if the difference in age between the treatment and control groups may have introduced bias into the study.

Due to the strict inclusion and exclusion regulations, the number of subject (sample size) is so small. In this case, does it make sense to compute p values in order to do hypothesis testing?

In both received real acupuncture group and received sham acupuncture group, there are quite a few participants quiting from the study in the treatment process. The author just got rid of the missing data or dropouts. Does this simple approach bring about bias in estimation?