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Lectures1-3 Flashcards

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1
Q

What are the 4 questions you should ask each paper you read?

A

What was the research question and why was the study needed?
What type of study was conducted?
Was the research design appropriate to the question?
Did the study meet expected standards of ethics and governance?

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2
Q

What questions do you ask when reading the abstract of a study?

A

Is this study of interest to me?

Is it relevant to me?

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3
Q

Question to ask in the introduction of a study?

A

Why was it done?

Are there gaps in our knowledge?

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4
Q

What is found in the methods of a study?

What questions should you ask during the methods section of a study?

A
  • Study design, population and recruitment, study procedures, interventions, outcomes.
  • How was it done, is there enough detail?
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5
Q

What to ask during the results section?

A

What has the study found?

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6
Q

Purpose of the discussion + questions you should ask?

A
  • Main findings, context of findings, meaning of findings, critique of work, implications.
  • what are the implications
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7
Q

5 broad fields of research?

A 
Therapy 
Diagnosis
Screening 
Prognosis 
Causation
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8
Q

What field of research studies: whether a new diagnostic test is valid and reliable?

A

Diagnosis

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9
Q

What field of research studies: demonstrating the value of tests that can be applied to large populations and that can pick up disease at a pre-symptomatic stage.

A

Screening

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10
Q

What field of research studies: Testing the efficacy of drug treatments, surgical procedure, alternative methods of service delivery or other interventions.

A

Therapy

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11
Q

What field of research studies: determining what is likely to happen to someone whose disease is picked up at an early stage.

A

Prognosis

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12
Q

What field of research studies: determining whether something is related to the development of illness

A

Causation

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13
Q

What is primary Vs secondary research?

A

Primary: report research first hand (empirical studies)
Secondary: summarize and draw conclusions from primary studies.

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14
Q

Define the following primary research techniques:

  • Descriptive
  • Experimental
  • Exploratory
  • Quasi-experimental
A
  • Describe populations, conditions
  • examine effect of one variable on another
  • find relationships, check validity of a tool
  • examine effect of one variable on another (no treatment, non-random assignment)
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15
Q

What type of studies match with the following primary research types?

  • Descriptive
  • Experimental
  • Exploratory
  • Quasi-experimental
A
  • Descriptive: case studies, surveys, qualitative research.
  • Experimental: RCT’s, evaluation studies
  • Exploratory: Case control, Cohort studies, diagnostic tests
  • Quasi-experimental: RCT’s, cohort studies.
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16
Q

What types of research is secondary research, examples?

A 
Literature reviews 
Systematic reviews 
Meta-analyses 
Guidelines 
Economic analyses
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17
Q

What are the 7 study designs?

A 
Prospective cohort studies 
RCT’s 
Case control studies 
Systematic reviews and meta analyses 
Cross-sectional surveys 
Qualitative studies 
Diagnostic studies
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18
Q

What are the 4 potential types of harm someone can undergo during a study?

A

Psychological
Physical
Legal
Social or economical

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19
Q

What is the process of having your study approved ethically?

A

Write a proposal.
Approved by ethics committee
Get informed consent from participants

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20
Q

what is the 5 step process of developing a research study?

A 
Develop question 
Decide on methods 
Sampling and recruitment 
Data collection 
Data analysis
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21
Q

what is a independent variable ?

A
  • Predictive variables

- Manipulated in an experiment

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22
Q

What is a dependent variable

A
  • Influenced by independent variables

- Measured as the outcome.

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23
Q

What is the independent and dependent variable in the following sentence: does chiropractic care improve neck pain more effectively than paracetamol for patients with whiplash after a road-traffic accident?

A

IND: chiropractic care
DEP: Neck pain

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24
Q

What is the independent and dependent variable in the following sentence: is there a difference in the progression of hand function (grip strength measured in newtons) in people with early RA, who are splinted, when compared to those who are not?

A

IND: splinted
DEP: grip strength

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25
What is the independent and dependent variable in the following sentence: is lung function reduced in people who are aged between 70 and 80 compared to those aged 20-30
IND: Aged DEP: lung function
26
What is the independent and dependent variable in the following sentence: Are exercises effective for treating shoulder pain?
IND: exercise DEP: shoulder pain.
27
What is quantitative research?
Aims to establish general laws of behaviour and phenomenon across different settings/contexts. Research is used to test a theory and ultimately suppor tor reject it. Using numerical data. Objective data.
28
Define Qualitative research?
Study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of or interpret phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them. Using words as data. Subjective data.
29
What is a control in research?
A control group is untreated and the results are compared to a group a treated individuals. To see how many people would have recovered despite treatment.
30
Sampling: define inclusion?
Conditions which must be met to enter a research study (must be a woman)
31
Sampling: define Exclusion?
Conditions which preclude people into a study (cant have aids) 💁
32
Define Population?
Total membership of defined class of people: ‘Canadian men at AECC college’
33
Define sampling:
Process of selecting elements of a population for inclusion in a study
34
Define Sample
A subset of a population used to represent the population as a whole
35
What is the ‘Power calculation’?
A calculation to identify the minimum sample size required so that one can be reasonable likely to detect an effect of a given size.
36
Sample size in Qual research, define: data saturation?
The point in data collection whine no new or relevant information emerges.
37
Define selection bias:
Selection bias is the bias introduced by the selection of individuals, groups or data for analysis in such a way that proper randomization is not achieved. Both groups Selected individuals and non selected individuals from a population should be as similar as possible (the same).
38
Define: Observer Bias
- Occurs whenever subjective factors within a study systematically affect the way observation are scored or recorded. - Occurs when the observers know the aims of the study or the hypotheses and allow this knowledge to influence their observations/records
39
Describe Blinding; | Why is it important
- The process of concealing participants group allocations - randomized - reduces co-interventions - prevents biased assessment of outcome
40
What are the 3 types of bias + describe:
- Single: participants are blinded - Double: participant and clinicians are blinded - Triple: participants, clinicians, and researchers are unaware of allocated aspects.
41
Define Attrition bias:
- Arises when the number of individuals dropping out of the study differ significantly in the different arms of the study. - caused by unequal loss of participants from a randomized controlled trial (RCT). In clinical trials, participants might withdraw due to unsatisfactory treatment efficacy, intolerable adverse events, or even death
42
Define confounding variables: | Example?
- A variable distributed differently in the study group and control group that affects the outcome. - IV: smoking. -DV: cancer - confounding variables: age, extent of smoking, duration of smoking, daily exercise.
43
Define Probability:
The likely hood of an event occurring - the number of times it happened - divided by the total number of things that happened 100 coin flips. 50 heads, 50 tails. 50/100 =0.5 50% chance of getting heads
44
Define risk ratio:
RR tells us how much bigger one risk is than another -calculated from the probability not the odds -100 coin flips. 50 heads, 50 tails. 50%100 =0.5 -risk ratio is half that of the other
45
A risk ratio of 1.0 means?
The chances of X occurring are the same
46
What does a RR of 16.0 tell us?
The chances of X are 16 times more likely to occur then Y
47
If the risk of smokers getting cancer is 40% And the risk of non smokers to get cancer is 2.5% What is the RR for these stats?
40% divided by 2.5% = 16.0 | There for smokers are 16x more likely to get cancer than non-smokers
48
A RR >1.0 means?
The risk is increased for the exposure group
49
A RR <1.0 means?
There is a decreased risk for the exposure group (exposure being something like smoking or treatment)
50
What is an Odds ration + calculations?
- the number of times it happened - divided by the number of times it didn’t happen ``` 100 coin flips: 50 heads, 50 tails 50/100 = 0.5 50/100 = 0.5 0.5/0.5 = 1 The odds of something happening are the same. ```
51
An odds ration of 2.0 means?
Twice as likely for the event to occur
52
An odds ratio of 0.5 means?
The odds of an event happening are half as likely
53
What does a 90% confidence interval mean?
A 95% confidence interval is a range of values that you can be 95% certain contains the true mean of the population.
54
What is statistical significance?
Using probability to exclude the factor of chance playing a role in the results obtained from a study. -small p-values indicate that the result is unlikely to be due to chance
55
What p-value is said to be statistically significant.
p < 0.05 | Less than 5 in 1000 results were based on chance.
56
An RR of 2.2 with a p value of 0.001 means?
The risk ratio of 2.2 was unlikely to be 1.0 because the p value of 0.001 found that only 1 in 10000 would be up to chance. The results were significant.
57
Describe what change score is?
Reported as the Mean change for the outcome measure of the study change score is the difference between the value of a variable measured at one point in time (Yt) from the value of the variable for the same unit at a previous time point (Yt−1).
58
If the baseline was 8.5 And the follow up is 7.4 What is the change score?
1.1 | This means the mean change is unlikely to be 0.
59
If the confidence interval crosses 0 what does this mean for the significance of a change score?
It is not significant because the change could be either way (positive or negative)
60
Define Minimal clinically important difference:
The smallest change in a treatment outcome that people with the condition would identify as important (either beneficial or harmful) and that would lead a person or their clinician to consider a change in treatment.
61
What is the formula for odds raito?
``` A/[A+B] = X C/[C+D]= Y X/Y = OR ```
62
``` If a 95% CI does not cross 1 which of the following measure would be considered statistically significant A change score An odds ratio A minimal clinically important change A difference in pain scores WHY?? ```
An odds ratio | -idk

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