A5- Managing information and data Flashcards
What is the general data protection act 1998?
It outlines how personal data should be used and stored. This gives everyone the right to know what information the government and other organisations store about them. This included the right to know how your data is being used, being able to access your data and giving people consent to use your data.
What is data?
Data is a collection of values like characters, words and numbers. Additionally, information is data that has been processed in a way that can be understood and shared.
What are some methods of collecting data?
• Focus groups
• Surveys
• Trials
• Double blind experiment
• Studies
What is methodology?
The procedures or techniques used to identify, select, process and analyse information about a topic.
What is a focus group?
When a researcher brings a group of people together to discuss a topic. It has up to 12 participants who are willing. In order to go through with a focus group the researcher will need ethical approval.
The researcher will look for theme within their answers to collect a wide range of opinions. This can help them determine why people act a certain way. They must also manage dialogue, ensure everyone contributes and that there is no discrimination. The focus group is typical recorded with the consent of the participants.
What is a survey?
A way of gathering factual information, views and opinions. They use open and closed questions.
They are efficient by can be misinterpreted and possibly unreliable.
These can be done face to face in the form of an interview so you can hear their tone and see their body language.
What is a trial?
Random people are selected to trial a drug, to test its effectiveness.
What is bias?
When a researchers opinions, assumptions and beliefs impact the research.
What is a placebo?
A fake drug, typically given in a clinical trial.
What is a double blind experiment?
In order to test the effectiveness of a drug while avoiding bias, a double blind experiment is used. This is when a randomised selection of people are chosen by a computer to eitehr be in the control group or the experimental group, this meaning one group will be given the real drug and the other the placebo.
What is randomised selection?
Where a computer picks who gets the real drug and who gets the placebo to eliminate bias.
What is a cohort study?
A researcher will observe a group of patients over a period of time (1-10 years making it a longitudinal study), to measure and compare the effects of something. This could be the effects of a drug or CBT or ect. This can be prospective or retrospective.
What is a prospective study?
A researcher will identify the correlations between conditions and possible causes. This is done over a long period of time as it can take a while to obtain these results.
Prospective study’s look ahead to examine causal relationships.
What is a retrospective study?
A researcher will use existing data to determine something. This may be looking at medical history’s of people to determine causations.
What is a primary research?
Gathering data yourself.
What is secondary research?
Gather information from other resources.
Who publish offices statistics?
The public health organisation and world health organisation collect and publish statistics on disease, public health, health protection and health improvement.
What is quantitative data?
This includes numerical data like length, height, age, time or mass. It can be either:
• discrete: this is something you can count, like number of patients, number of GP visits and flu cases. This is usually whole numbers.
• continuous: this is something that can be measured like height, weight or blood glucose concentration. This can be any value, including those that aren’t whole numbers.
What is qualitative data?
This is text based and descriptive data. An example is a patients medical history.
What is a dependant variable?
A variable that’s value depends on another variable. This is counted or measured.
What is an independent variable?
A variable whose value does not depend on another variable. This is usually changed.
What is a table?
When data is presented through columns and rows, labeled with titles and units.
What are the rules to follow when making a table?
• The IV goes in the first column and the DV should be in columbus to the right.
• Processed data like means, rates and calculations go in columns to the far right.
• Only include calculated values.
• Head each column.
What is a scatter graph and when are they used?
(The one where the x’s are all over the place).
When investigating the relationship between two variables, that can be measured in pairs. Like the age & height of children.
The graph can establish whether there is a relationship between the variables. This could be:
• Positive correlation: as the IV increases the DV increases.
• Negative correlation: as the IV increases the DV decreases.
• No correlation.