Epi - L1 - General Concepts of Research Flashcards
Study design & methodology
quantitative vs. qualitative
numbers as data vs words as data
which of the two study designs uses forced allocations to study group?
interventional studies (observational does NOT force allocation to study groups)
interventional studies
- considered “experimental”
- investigator selects interventions or exposure
- there IS researcher-forced group allocation and randomization processes are commonly utilized to accomplish this
observational studies
- considered “natural”
- useful for unethical study designs using forced interventions
- ** most of these studies are not able to prove Causation
- there is NO RESEARCHER-FORCED group allocation
interventional study design is broken into how many phases, and in which way does the evidence increase?
Phase 0, 1, 2, 3, 4; increases from 0-4
what type of observational studies are there?
case reports/series, ecological, cross-sectional, case-control, cohort; increases from left to right
what is the most useful and appropriate study design?
it depends on the question being asked and the desired perspective;
FDA picks interventional studies
study design selection is based on:
- perspective of research question (hypothesis)
- ability/ desire of researcher to force group allocation (randomization)
- ethics of methodology
- efficiency & practicality (time/resource commitment)
- costs
- validity of acquired information (internal validity)
- applicability of acquired information to non-study patients (external validity; generalization)
human studies: study subjects:
- population
- sample
population
all individuals making up a common group; from which a sample (smaller set) can be obtained, if desired
- not to be confused with the ‘study pop’ which is the final group of individuals selected for the study
sample
a subset or portion of the full, complete population (“representatives”)
- useful when studying the complete pop is not feasible
- random processes commonly utilized to draw sample
what is the study population selection based on?
- research hypothesis / question of interest
- population of interest
- group of individuals most useful and applicable to answer the research question
- INCLUSION & EXCLUSION selection criteria (interventional studies) and CASE & CONTROL/ EXPOSED & UNEXPOSED group selectroin criteria (observational studies)
- depends on what the desired, logical or possible selection criteria is available
- these absolutely impact generalizability
What is the Null Hypothesis?
a research perspective which states there will be NO (true) difference between the groups being compared
- most conservative and commonly utilized
what statistical-perspectives can be taken by the researcher when it comes to a null hypothesis?
- superiority
- noninferiority
- equivalency
what is the most common sampling scheme?
probability samples
- every element in the pop has a known (nonzero) probablity of being included in the sample
what are 6 examples of probability sampling schemes?
all random sampling:
- simple
- systematic
- stratified simple
- stratified disproportionate
- multi-stage
- cluster multi-stage
simple random sampling
- flip of the coin
- number out of the hat
- assign random numbers, then take randomly-selected numbers to get desired sample size
- assign random numbers, then sequentially-list numbers and take desired sample size from top (or bottom) of listed numbers
systematic random sampling
assign random numbers, then randomly sort these random numbers, then select highest (or lowest) number, then SYSTEMATICALLY, by pre-determined sampling-interval, take every Nth number to get desired sample size