Interpretation

Subjects who had an active magnet reported significantly less pain than did subjects who recieved the placebo. The confidence interval on the difference between means shows that the effect is large and therefore of practical as well as statistical significance.

Since this is the first study to show such a large pain reduction using active magnets, caution should be exercised in interpreting the results. Caution is also warranted in generalizing the results from pain caused by polio to other types of pain. Nonetheless, these data provide one impressive demonstration of the effectiveness of this kind of therapy.