RM1

Describe basic research?

lab based? Scientific, experimental – aims to improve scientific theories for improved understanding

Describe applied research?

draws on these theories / developments to apply them in practice

What does research aim to do?

derive new knowledge

What does an audit aim to do?

continuous improvement by measuring service structure/process/outcomes and assessing services against set / previously agreed standards

Are we doing what we should be doing?

What does a service evaluation aim to do?

define or judge current care by providing a systematic assessment of its aims, objectives, activities, outputs, outcomes, cost effectiveness

What standard does this service achieve?

What would a research protocol contain?

• Background (a short introduction to the topic)

• Aims and objectives

• Study design and methodology

• Ethical considerations

• Project Plan

• References

Describe a cross-sectional survey?

• One-off data collection point

• Descriptive (but can be hypothesis testing)

• Prevalence (or ‘how many’ question)

• Usually use a questionnaire

• Most common

Describe cohort/longitudinal studies?

Forward in time

Naturally divides exposed / non-exposed groups

A cohort is used to describe any designated group of persons who are traced over a period of time.

Subsets of a defined population are identified who have been exposed (or will be exposed) to a factor which may influence the probability of occurrence of a given disease or other outcome.

Usually used to study aetiological factors

Describe case control studies?

Compare group with disease to control group

Look back in time

Good to look at rare events

take a group with the disease and a group without the disease and see how much of the exposure of interest each group has had

This is a practical way to look at risk when the prevalence is very low

Describe case studies?

Circumstances, complexity, dynamics of a single case or small number of cases,

In the medical setting it can be an individual or small group demonstrating an interesting condition or response

Describe the experimental research design?

• Test a hypothesis

• One group exposed to intervention, the other not

• Two groups otherwise equivalent

• Collect data before and after

• Uses randomisation to different groups

• Randomised controlled trial is an example

What are limitations with the experimental research design?

• Difficult to design

• Not real life? Contrived

• Difficult to exclude confounders

• Hard to isolate the effect of one variable from another

• Can’t always randomise if a service introduced in one locality

• Matching

• Costly

What are the Quantitative data collection tools?

Questionnaires

Highly structured interviews

Analysis of pre-existing datasets

Recording activities

What are the qualitive data collection tools?

Interviews unstructured, semi structured

Focus groups

Observation

Define hypothesis testing?

A prediction about the relationship between the dependent and independent variables

Collect data to see if hypothesis is true or not

Define confounding?

Factors (other than those under study and therefore not controlled for) which distort the results

Define bias?

Deviation of the observed value from its true value

Describe types of bias?

• Sampling

• Interviewer

• Non-response

• Reporting

• Observer

• Choose sample not representative of population

• Interviewer is biased in their questions / attitudes

• Non-response

• Find out bad results, don’t report it

• Recording items on a form and don’t record everything you see.

What method reflect a positivist view of the world?

Laboratory-based / quantitative methods

What methods reflect an interpretivist / naturalistic view of the world?

Qualitative / social science methods

Describe positivism?

• A philosophy behind how we gather knowledge

• Positivism says knowledge is what we can see and observe

• Positivism concerns the application of scientific method

• Positivists believed in empiricism: the use of observation and measurement to discover new knowledge

Describe Interpretivism?

• Attempts to understand phenomena by the meanings people assign to them

• Looks at the context in which a behaviour occurs

• Focuses on the complexity of human behaviour

• Research conducted in natural settings

What are the advantages of a mixed method?

• Can offset weaknesses of each design

• Holistic view of the issue being researched

• Helps to focus on context

• Helps to explain findings

What are limitations of a mixed method?

• Design can be complex

• Takes more time

• How do you link data from these two traditions

• How do you resolve discrepancies in findings?

Describe the lens?

Can be whatever stands between you and the Truth: an interviewer, a survey, the design of the trial

how the experiment is set up including the equipment and process of what you do to find out the Truth.