Week 1: chap 1 - Health Research process

Health definition

a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or affirmity

Determinants of health

biological, behavioural, social, environmental, political, and other factors that influence the health status of individuals and populations

• determine defined as:

  • to cause, affect, or control

  • to give direction/tendency to

  • to impel

Health research

investigation of health and disease or any factors that contribute to the presence/absence of physical, mental, and social health among individuals, families, communities, nations, or the world health as a whole

• encompasses clinical and pop. health research

done to understand what determines health

pre-clinical research

investigate safety, mechanism, and potential effectiveness of a drug, therapy, medical device, or other health intervention

Clinicians

medical professional who provides direct care to patients/clients

• include doctor, midwives, and skilled in medical setting

Medicine

practice of preventing, diagnosing, and treating health problems in individuals

Clinical research

evaluates the best way to prevent, diagnose, and treat adverse health issues that affect individuals and fam.

• used humans in investigation

• ex. may track progression of disease and test treatment effectiveness

Basic medical research, basic science), biological /basic medical research

studies molecules, genes, cells, and other smaller biological components relates to human health and function

Transitional research and transitional medicine

bridges basic and clinical research by applying scientific discoveries to the improvement of clinical outcomes

transitional medicine: aim to move research from the lab to bedside (clinical care setting)

Population health

focus on health outcomes and determinants of health in groups of humans

• function of many factor —> human behaviour, social, economic environment, physical environment, access to healthcare, etc

Public health

actions taken to promote health and prevent illness, injury, and early death at the population level

public health practitioner —> put health strategies into action to prevent health problems and protect community

Population health research

examines health outcomes at the community, regional, national, and worldwide levels

public health researcher —> study community needs, create strategies to improve population health, and assess whether those strategies work

similarities between clinical and population health research

apply tools from a diversity of academic disciplines

Clinical research:

• often draw on the tools of laboratory science (ex. molecular bio, nutrition, etc)

Population health research:

• use tools form demography: the study of size and composition of pop. and pop. dynamics (such as birth and death rate)

• both use methods of social science fields (ex. sociology, intro, etc)

Research

process of systematically and carefully investigating a topic to discover new insights about the world

5 steps of the research process

1. identify study question

   • focused research q and establish good relation w/collaborators and mentors

2. select study approach

   • 
     

• FIRST 2 OFTEN DONE CONCURRENTLY

3. Design study and collect data

   • ethics and data collection process

4. analyze data

   • common strategies for qualitative and quantitative data analysis

5. report findings

   • prepare manuscript for review and publish