Practice 2 – Experimental study

A clinical trial is conducted comparing a new pain reliever for arthritis to a placebo. Participants are randomly assigned to receive the new treatment or a placebo and the outcome in pain relief within 30 minutes. The data are shown below:

                                                               Pain relief                 No pain relief

New Medication                                        44                               76

Placebo                                                      21                                99

Is there a significant difference in the proportions of patients reporting pain relief?