Health Research Process, Research Questions, Specific Aims
What is the structure of a good research question?
Is [exposure] associated with [outcome] among [population]?
What is an example of a reliable database to perform a literature review in the health sciences?
PubMed, MEDLINE, PsycInfo
What is is the purpose of case reports/case series?
Case reports (among single patient) and case series (among small group of patients) are used for describing the experience of patient(s) with a particular clinical phenomenon
What measure of association is calculated in a case-control study?
Odds ratio
Name a data collection method used in qualitative studies.
In-depth interview, semi-structured interview, or focus group
A carefully described action that will help the researcher make progress toward achieving the study objective.
Which of the following is this a definition of?
1) a research question
2) a study objective
3) a specific aim
A specific aim
I am interested in evaluating the relationship between sleep quality and student grades among college students in Boston. Provide at least four keywords that I could use in a literature search for this study objective.
Some potential keywords: sleep, sleep quality, sleep duration, school grades, academic success, college students, undergraduate students, graduate students
What are primary, secondary & tertiary studies?
Primary = collect and analyze new data
Secondary = analyze existing data
Tertiary = review and synthesize the literature
When would you chose to use a case-control study?
You would want to use a case-control study if the disease of interest was rare in the population (prevalence <10%).
How do you increase statistical power?
Increase the sample size of your study.
I am interested in evaluating the relationship between food habits and general health condition. I'm interested in looking at this relationship among the elderly.
Write an appropriate health research question for this topic of interest.
What are the five main sections of a peer-reviewed research article?
Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion
What is the main characteristic of a cross-sectional study?
A cross-sectional study is a 'snap-shot' in time of participant's exposure and outcome, which are assessed at the same time.
What is the main characteristic of a cohort study?
Exposure is assessed in a population then disease status is obtained
Autonomy, Beneficence, Nonmaleficence, Justice
What are the five steps of the health research process?
1. Identify the study question
2. Select the study approach
3. Design study & collect data
4. Analyze data
5. Report findings
What is an informal source? Provide an example.
A type of information that is not peer-reviewed. Examples include: webpages, fact sheets, blogs, and podcasts.
What is the difference between quantitative and qualitative data?
Quantitative = utilizes structured, hypothesis-driven approaches to gather data that can be statistically analyzed
Qualitative = utilizes in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and participant observations to explore attitudes, perceptions, identify themes and patterns, and formulate new theories (answer the "why?" and "how?")
What is recall bias?
Bias that occurs when cases and controls have systematically different memories of the past based on their exposure status
I am interested in evaluating the relationship between sleep quality and student grades among college students in Boston. Create one close-ended and one open-ended question to obtain information on this relationship.
Subjective but should include a question ideally on sleep quality (possibly open-ended: How do you feel the quality of your sleep is?) and a question on grades in school (possibly close-ended: How would you describe your grades: a) Mostly A's; b) Mostly B's; c) Mostly C's; d) Mostly D's; e) Mostly F's).
What is the difference between clinical and population health research?
Clinical research = evaluates the best way to prevent, diagnose, and treat adverse health issues that affect individuals
Population health research = evaluates health outcomes and the determinants of health in groups of people
Identify the issues with the following APA reference citation:
Wagner, Kathryn A., Miller, Bob M., Brown, Stephanie L. The Association Between Classroom Readings and Midterm Test Scores. Public Health, 7(1):210-212. doi: 10.1111/ph.210.
1. No full first name - put as first initial with period after.
2. Follow list of author names with publication year in parentheses.
3. Article title should be in sentence case.
4. Italicize periodical (Public Health) and volume number (7).
5. Should be a comma between the issue number (1) and page numbers (210-212).
What is the difference between a systematic review and a meta-analysis?
Systematic review = a rigorous, formal research process that identifies, appraises, and synthesizes high-quality evidence on a specific topic
Meta-analysis = a statistical method that combines and analyzes the results of multiple independent, similar studies to obtain a pooled estimate of the relationship of interest
We conducted a study on participation in football and traumatic brain injury among high-school students. We obtained the following odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI): OR=4.7, 95% CI: 2.4-6.3. How would you interpret this finding (including whether it is statistically significant or not and what it means about the association of interest)?
The 95% CI (2.4-6.3) does not include the null value of an odds ratio of 1.0 so it is statistically significant.
There is a 4.7 increased odds of traumatic brain injury with participation in football, compared to no participation in football among high-school students.
What are the four types of research populations? What is their relationship?
Target population (general population) --> source population (individuals you'll draw representative sample from) --> sample population (individuals asked to participate) --> study population (eligible participants)