Research Concepts Flashcards
What are the elements of the PICO system for asking focused clinical questions in EBP?
Patient or Problem-what is the target for the question?
Intervention-what intervention is being evaluated?
Comparison-what is it being compared to?
Outcome-was the intervention successful?
What is Descriptive Research?
What are some examples?
recording, analyzing, and interpreting conditions that exist for the purpose of classification and understanding clinical phenomenon
developmental research, normative research, qualitative research, and case report/series
What is Experimental Research?
What are some examples?
Comparing two or more conditions for the purpose of determining cause and effect relationships between independent and dependent variables
randomized control trials, quasi-experimental studies and single subject design studies
What is Exploratory Research?
What are some examples?
examines the dimensions of a phenomenon of interest and its relationships to other factors
cohort studies, case control studies, historical research, and methodological studies
What is Continuous Data?
What are some examples?
data that can assume any value along a continuous scale that covers a range of values without gaps or interruptions
values are limited by the degree of accuracy of the measuring instrument
Examples: ROM in degrees, distance, weight, and time
What is Discrete Data?
What are some examples?
Data this is measured in whole units
Examples: heart rate, number of patients diagnosed with cancer, and number of PT visits a patient has attended
What is Dichotomous Data?
What are some examples?
Discrete data limited to only two values
Examples: Gender (male or female) and smoking status (yes or no)
What is Qualitative Data?
What are some examples?
categorical data
represents different categories distinguished by a non-numeric characteristic
Examples: eye color, blood type, and hand dominance
What is Quantitative Data?
What are some examples?
data consisting of numbers that represent counts or measurements
A measurement is the numeral assigned to an object, event or person, or the category to which an object, event of person is assigned according to rules
What is a box and whisker plot?
type of graph that illustrates the distribution of values with a group through five numbers (minimum score, lower quartile, median, upper quartile, and maximum score)
outliers are shown as circles
What graph is usually only used in meta analyses?
Forest plot
What is epidemiology?
the study of causes, distribution, transmission, and control of disease in groups of people
What is the difference between incidence and prevalence?
incidence-number of new cases of a particular disease or condition in the population at risk during a specific time interval
Prevalence-number of existing cases of a disease at a point in time including new and pre-existing cases
What is Relative Risk (RR)?
a measure of the risk of a certain even happening in one group compared to the risk of the same event happening in another group
A RR of 1.0 means there is an equal chance in both groups, greater than 1.0 means there is a greater risk and less than 1.0 means less risk
also known as risk ratio
What is an Odds Ratio (OR)?
measure of the odds of an event happening in one group compared to the odds of the same event happening in another group
mostly used in case control studies to find out if being exposed to a substance or other risk facto increases the risk of developing a certain disease
OR of 1.0 means that exposure probably does not increase the risk of developing the disease
OR of more than 1.0 means exposure leads to higher risk and less than 1.0 means exposure leads to less risk or reduces the risk
