AAAA Therapy + Some Study Designs Flashcards
What is epidemiology?
What does it help with?
The study of patterns of health and illness, and associted factors at the population level.
It helps in the identification of risk factors for disease and determining optimal treatment.
Which study design is most appropriate to investigate frequency and rate?
Cross sectional or cohort.
Which study design is most appropriate to investigate aetiology?
Ecological, case control or cohort.
Which study design is most appropriate to investigate prognosis?
Cohort.
Which study design is most appropriate to investigate diagnosis?
Cross-sectional.
Which study design is most appropriate to investigate effectiveness?
RCTs.
Which study design is most appropriate to investigate experiences?
Qualitative research.
What is a cross sectional study?
What types are there?
A study that examines the relationship between a disease and other variables as they exist in a defined population at a single / short period of time.
Can be descriptive or analytical.
What is a cohort study?
What types are there?
A longitudinal study that flows from exposure to outcome, following a group exposed to the risk factor and a group that is unexposed.
Can be prospective (forward-looking) or retrospective (backward-prospective).
What is an ecological study?
Ecological studies are observational studies of risk factors on health based on populations defined either geographically or temporally.
What is a longitudinal study?
A research method in which data is gathered for the same subjects repeatedly over a period of time.
What is an observational study?
Studies where researchers observe the effect of a risk factor without trying to change who is or isn’t exposed to it.
What does PICO stand for?
What is it used for?
Population
Intervention
Comparator
Outcome
Used as a framework for research questions.
e.g.
What is the effectiveness of gay therapy 2.0 on big gays as an alternative to gay therapy 1.0 to cure the gay pandemic? p - big gays i - gay therapy 2.0 c - gay therapy 1.0 vs 2.0 o - cure gay pandemic
What is a randomised control trial / RCT?
A trial in which subjects are randomly assigned to one of two groups: one (the experimental group) receiving the intervention that is being tested, and the other (the comparison group or control) receiving an alternative (conventional) treatment.
What are the 3 main advantages of having a control / comparator group?
1 - Increases sample size.
2 - Gives patients a choice about which treatment they receive (if not RCT).
3 - Allows us to evaluate whether patients would get better without the new treatment.