EBM

Question 1

Outline the rationale for, & approaches to sampling in order to make inferences about a population

Answer 1

• Samples are used to make inferences about populations
• Enables researcher to collect & analyse data for a smaller portion of the population & then apply the results to the whole population
• Permits one to draw conclusions about v. complex situations
• Allows research to be done faster & at a lesser cost
• Sampling needs to be representative of the population, if not, results applied to the entire population will be misleading

APPROACHES
Random Sampling
- Everyone in pop has same probability of selection
- Limitations: time consuming & expensive
Convenience Sampling
- Sample members are convenient to access for researchers e.g. single clinic or geographically area.
- Limitations: may not be representative of pop
Cluster Sampling
- Natural groups of participants (eg hospitals)
- Aim-> sample more representative pop., concentrates efforts on these clusters
- Unlikely to have similar control groups across pop., most likely in localised area, representative of pop?

Question 2

Outline the aims and objectives of quantitative research in the clinical, biomedical and healthcare sciences.

Answer 2

• To establish the incidence/prevalence of a health problem
• To establish the degree of adherence of health personnel to a new intervention
• Aims: to use objective measures w/ statistical methods/mathematics /computational modelling to enable a systematic, rigorous & empirical investigation.
• Can be descriptive (hypothesis generating) studies
• Can be hypothesis driven studies
• Can examine trends & patterns in health

Question 3

Why do we need to Critically Appraise?

Answer 3

• Published research is not always reliable.
• Only a small no. judged clinically relevant.
• Pts are better informed & come to us having read material on the internet or in the media.

Essential to:
- Combat information overload.
- ID papers that’s clinically relevant.
- CPD- critical appraisal is a requirement for the EBM component of many membership exams.

Question 4

5 steps of EBM

Answer 4

1. Asking answerable questions, i.e., formulating questions into a format whereby you can interrogate the medical literature and hopefully find an answer - PICO tool, which helps to break down the query into Pop, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome.
2. Search for the evidence - if you can find a pre-appraised resource, you can miss out the next step.
3. Critical appraisal of your results.
4. Decide what action to take from your findings.
5. Evaluate your new or amended practice.