Chapter 8.2, Problem 8.23ACI

Is honey a cough remedy? Refer to the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine (Dec. 2007) study of honey as a children’s cough remedy. Exercise 2.31 (p. 62). Children who were ill with an upper respiratory tract infection and their parents participated in the study. Parents were instructed to give their sick child a dosage of liquid “medicine” prior to bedtime. Unknown to the parents, some were given a dosage of dextromethorphan (DM)—an over-the-counter cough medicine—while others were given a similar dose of honey. (Note: A third group gave their children no medicine.) Parents then rated their children’s cough symptoms, and the improvement in total cough symptoms score was determined for each child. The data (improvement scores) for the 35 children in the DM dosage group and the 35 children in the honey dosage group are reproduced in the next table. Do you agree with the statement (extracted from the article), “Honey may be a preferable treatment for the cough and sleep difficulty associated with childhood upper respiratory tract infection”? Use the comparison of two means methodology presented in this section to answer the question.