Researchers compared urinary bacteria levels of elderly women who drank 10 ounces of a juice drink containing cranberry juice each day to elderly women who consumed the same amount of a look-alike drink without cranberry juice (indistinguishable in taste, appearance, and vitamin C content from cranberry juice). 153 elderly women participated in this study. Each one was randomly assigned to the cranberry juice group or the placebo group and was followed over a 6-month period. The women had a mean age of 78.5 years and high levels of bacteria in their urine at the start of the study. The odds in the cranberry group of having bacteria levels exceeding a certain threshold were 42% of what they were in the control group. Which negative effect was not being controlled for by using the placebo drink

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Mathematics

Xiomara Hobbs

1 February, 12:14

Researchers compared urinary bacteria levels of elderly women who drank 10 ounces of a juice drink containing cranberry juice each day to elderly women who consumed the same amount of a look-alike drink without cranberry juice (indistinguishable in taste, appearance, and vitamin C content from cranberry juice). 153 elderly women participated in this study. Each one was randomly assigned to the cranberry juice group or the placebo group and was followed over a 6-month period. The women had a mean age of 78.5 years and high levels of bacteria in their urine at the start of the study. The odds in the cranberry group of having bacteria levels exceeding a certain threshold were 42% of what they were in the control group. Which negative effect was not being controlled for by using the placebo drink

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Vaughn Faulkner · Answer 1

The elderly women who drank the placebo drink had much more bacteria in their urine since its the cranberry juice that is somehow preventing the bacterial growth. Since at the start of the study they had similar levels of bacteria in their urine, and at the end of the six-month period the amount of bacteria present had declined, it can be safely concluded that cranberry juice had an effect of reducing bacterial growth in those elderly women.