EBCR Quiz 2: Intro to Primary Literature, Research Methods, Intro to Tertiary Literature, Drug Databases, Guidelines, Package Inserts, Internet Resources

What is Primary Literature?

Written accounts of original thought or discovery directly derived from first-hand observation or research.

T/F: Primary Literature introduces old evidence into the existing body of scientific knowledge.

FALSE: introduces new evidence

Where is primary literature published mostly?

Commonly published in medical or health-related journals.

T/F: All literature published in journals is primary literature

FALSE: not all

Besides journals, where else can primary literature be considered?

posters presented at conferences.

How is primary literature defined?

By its CONTENT

Give some examples of primary literature you would see used for clinical research studies and reports?

Randomized controlled trials, cohort studies, case series, and case reports

List the sections in order that would be within a primary literature article

1. Title/Authors

2. Abstract

3. Introduction

4. Methods: study designs

5. Results

6. Discussion

7. Conclusion

8. References

What are some advantages of primary literature?

1. There is original and current information.

2. Detailed information

3. Open for reader's own assessment of validity

What are some disadvantages of primary literature?

1. Conclusion based on one trial may be misleading without the context of research.

2. Reader must have good literature evaluation skills

3. Time-consuming

4. can be costly and difficult to obtain

What are the 2 types of medical journals and give examples of what they cover?

1. General Focus: covers a variety of disciplines and medical conditions

2. Specialty Focus: covers specific medical conditions, organ systems, or patient populations

What factors increase the credibility of a journal?

Peer reviewed, editorial board, accept correspondence, affiliated with a professional organization, and low advertisement to text ratio.

What is an Impact Factor?

Average number of times the articles in a journal were cited during a period of time.

Is a high impact factor good or bad?

It is good! Higher impact factor=greater scientific influence

What are the two types of research methods?

Evaluative and Descriptive

What is Evaluative research?

Where the goal is to answer a question

What are the 2 subtypes of evaluative research?

1. Experimental: measure interventions

2. Observational: examine specific data sources for the purpose of identifying relationships surrounding specific events or outcomes.

What is Descriptive Research?

Primary goal is to report individual experiences.

T/F: Descriptive research typically lacks a hypothesis or scientific principles

true

What are the 4 examples of experimental in evaluative research?

1. clinical trials

2. Meta analysis

3. Pharmacoeconomic

4. Health related quality of life

What are the 3 examples of observational in evaluative research?

1. cohort

2. case control

3. survey

For evaluative research, what are the sections (in order)?

1. title

2. authors

3. abstract

4. intro/background

5. methods

6. results

7. discussion

8. conclusion

9. references

For descriptive research, what are the main examples?

Cohort, case-control, cross-sectional, case report/ clinical series, survey

What are the sections in descriptive research (in order)?

1. title

2. authors

3. abstract

4. intro/background

5. observations (combo of methods and results)

6. Discussion

7. Conclusion

8. References

What are the outcomes?

ECHO

e- economic

c- clinical

h- humanistic

o- operational

What is involved with economic outcomes?

Evaluate costs and associated consequences

What are some clinical outcomes?

Biologic and physiologic changes: lab findings and physical findings

What is the focus of clinical outcomes?

clinical trials, meta-analysis, cohort, and case-control trials

What does operational outcomes involve?

assessment of how perceptions or behaviors changed as a result of an intervention

What is pharmacoeconomic research?

Identification, measurement, and comparison of costs and consequences associated with pharmaceutical products or services

What is the health related quality of life?

Evaluate the effects that disease and treatments have on patients, whether physical or perceived

Describe Clinical Trial

purpose is to evaluate cause and effect. involves "true" experiments. it is also prospective. There is control groups, inclusion and exclusion criteria, and binding, involves demographics

Describe meta-analysis

"study of studies"; statistical relationships, does include inclusion and exclusion criteria, pooling type of data collection. Retrospective, has public bias, internal validity

Describe a cohort study

aka follow up study

purpose: to determine the relationship between risk factor exposure and outcomes. usually prospective. The study population is broken down into cases exposed and controls not exposed. they then list both + and - outcomes for each.

select a duration of follow up. they have comparable groups (monitoring process), withdrawal rate.

stats appropriate, delineated patients based on exposures, retrospective analysis

Describe case-control analysis

purpose is to determine which prior risk factor may be contributing to a observed outcome. it is retrospective. We go from present to past. We look at the + and - risk factors for cases; do the same thing for controls. Investigators should describe the process used to collect data, must develop structured protocols. OUTCOME HAS ALREADY BEEN REALIZED:

retrospective, stats appr., sensitive or rare topic

Describe cross-sectional analysis

Purpose: to evaluate opinions, environmental circumstances FOR A SPECIFIC PERIOD OF TIME; surveys are used here. less expensive and quicker to perform.

Determined prevalence, use of survey, stats appropriate.

Describe case study

to report the clinical course of a particular patient. no hypothesis

Describe clinical series

to report the clinical course of multiple patients linked by commonalities. no hypothesis