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My experimental study will attempt to determine if
consuming local honey helps reduce allergy symptoms over a two month period.

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60 adults, ages 20 to 40 who live in the Phoenix-metro region
and suffer from allergies

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I stood outside three grocery stores and asked people to
complete a survey. I asked them how severe their allergies were and if they
currently eat any local honey. I only got people who had allergies rated above 8
on a scale from 1 to 10 and who have never had locally made honey. I then got
them to volunteer to be part of my study.

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I gave 20 people 2 jars of locally grown honey, 20 people 2 jars of
commercial clover honey, and 20 people no honey. They were to take 2 teaspoons
per day for the next two months, then I would call them to follow up.

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My explanatory variable is which type of honey each person
consumes over the time period.

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My response variable will be the rating of allergy severity after
the two month period. Specifically the reduction of allergy symptoms.

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I do not have a placebo honey as that is not possible, I do
have a control group, which is the 20 people that are not to eat any honey during
the time period.

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There is a blind in this study, because the people that
get the local and commercial honey don’t know which one they got. The control
group however, is not blind. There is no double-blind, because I know which
treatment they are getting.

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I made sure there were an equal number of 8s, 9s, and
10s ratings in each group. So I essentially blocked for allergy severity. This helps
me be sure that the results I get are not due to too many 10s in one group or too
many 8s in another.

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I could have done matched pair designs by pairing people
according to similar diets, or where they live in Phoenix. I didn’t do this however,
because I assigned groups on the spot outside grocery stores and didn’t get the
opportunity to match pairs up.

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Crossover design could be used in this study. I would have all
the local honey subjects do the commercial honey or no honey, and see how their
allergies worsen or are relieved. However, this would be too costly as I would
have to buy three times as much honey, and allergy season would be over before
all the treatments are done.

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My sample size of 60 yields a margin of error at
12.9%. This could be much lower, but it would require me to spend a lot more to
get more than 60 subjects.

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I plan on carrying out this experiment again next spring on a new
group of 60 allergy sufferers. If my results are close to the same, I will know they
are more valid.

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After 2 months, I called up each individual
in my study and had them re-rate their allergy symptoms. For the control group,
no honey. They went from an average rating of 9.1 to 9.3. Their allergies worsened. For the commercial group, the average went from 8.9 to 8.8. There was a slight improvement. For the locally grown honey group, the average rating went from 9.2 to 6.5. This is a 2.7 decline in allergy symptoms, a 29% decrease
respectively. I think that this is statistically significant and that the locally grown
honey helps allergy sufferers overall, more than would occur by random chance.
With my 12.9% margin of error though, I cannot be certain. Replication is needed.