Aging and Human Growth Hormone Replacement Therapy - Assignment Example

Today, the use of human growth hormones in treating adults has been approved in many countries and the obtained results have been shown to be popularly effective. The effectiveness of human growth hormone therapy in treating age-related illnesses has however been questioned by many including researchers and practical patients. This sets the basis for the first hypothesis that the paper aims to prove; that human growth hormone therapy is not as effective as many clinical experiments have indicated.

Further, it can be argued that many people are reluctant to use the therapy to treat their age-related illnesses and thus the second hypothesis that as age increases, many patients are reluctant to use HGHT to solve their health problems. To test the first hypothesis, an experimental study design will be used to test the variables with the dependent variable here been the type of age-related illness and the independent variable been the effectiveness of HGHT in treating the particular illness.

  Simple random criteria will be used in selecting the participants from a population of two hundred patients. For one to be considered as potential participants, he or she must be above the specified age limit, be suffering from a given age-related illness and be willing to participate in the study. Here, the type of age-related illness will not be a major determining factor though the patients must be suffering from diseases that are claimed to be potentially healed through HGHM. The methodology to be used in testing this hypothesis will incorporate statistical tests and in particular, the Z-test in which case statistical calculations will be carried out based on the results obtained.

In this case, the significance level of 0. 05 will be assumed and where the z-score assumes a negative value, the hypothesis will be discarded as null or void (Rand, 2005, 231). Testing the first hypothesis is however susceptible to participants' bias as participants may give false or contradicting results. For example, where the health problem is decreased sexual activity, an old person may lie about his sexual participation due to shyness or other factors. To avoid or mitigate this bias, only individuals with testable illnesses will be selected to participate and the success or failure of the therapy will be recorded at minimal time intervals preferably after every fifteen days.

To test the second hypothesis, an observational study design will be used in which case interaction with the selected population will be relied upon in giving concrete results. In this case, research assistance will be contracted to interact with the chosen participants drawn from a population of the age bracket of between 35 and 79 years.