4.2. Study Limitations
pain
There are several limitations to our study. Firstly, the sample size was not sufficient for the study to detect a statistical significance as the required number of participants needed to generate statistically significant results with an alpha of 0.05 was 30. This limitation exists as it was largely dependent on (1) the availability of respondents at the time and (2) restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, while the current study did manage to show an analgesic effect, it was incapable of demonstrating this via an absolute reduction in pain scores for both participants in both interventions, but rather via a relative reduction in pain scores compared to the control group. Further studies with a larger sample size will need to be conducted to confirm these findings.Secondly, the VAS scale that was used in this study was modified from a previously validated VAS scale via the addition of numbered markings. To our knowledge, no other studies have used this version of the VAS scale. As such, it lacks reproducibility which may pose a possible limitation in our study. However, we believe that the numbered markings allowed the participants to produce a more objective assessment of their pain scores as it allowed them to compare their current pain scores to previous pain scores.