Is honey a cough remedy? Refer to the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine (December 2007) study of honey as a children’s cough remedy, Exercise 15.28 (p. 15-19). In addition to the two experimental groups of children with an upper respiratory tract infection—one that was given a dosage of dextromethorphan (DM) and the other a similar dose of honey—a third group of children received no dosage (control group). The cough symptoms improvement scores for the children are reproduced in the accompanying table.

a. What nonparametric test can be used to compare the distributions of cough improvement scores for the three dosage groups?

b. Use statistical software to conduct the test at a = .01. Honey 12 11 15 11 10 13 10 4 15 16 9 14 10 6 10 Dosage: 8 11 12 12 8 12 9 11 15 10 15 9 13 8 12 10 8 9 5 12 DM Dosage: 4 6 9 4 7 7 7 9 12 10 11 6 3 4 9 12 7 6 8 12 12 4 12 13 7 10 13 9 4 4 10 15 9 No Dosage 5 8 6 1 0 8 12 8 7 7 1 6 7 7 12 7 9 7 9 (Control): 5 11 9 5 6 8 8 6 7 10 9 4 8 7 3 1 4 3 Source: “Effect of Honey, Dextromethorphan, and No Treatment on Nocturnal Cough and Sleep Quality for Coughing Children and Their Parents,” from Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Vol. 161 No. 12, 2007.