Exam 1 - Starburst Flashcards
**What are the steps of the scientific research process
- Pose a research question and hypothesis
- Develop and implement a research plan
- Perform data collection
Cross-sectional and cohort study designs are types of _____ research designs
Observational
Which validity confers that the research conducted is correct
Internal validity
Which validity confers that the research conducted is applicable to the general population
External validity
**What is the goal of evidence based medicine (EBM)
A. To utilize the relevant scientific evidence to provide highest quality patient care
B. To develop new medicines based on biomedical research
C. To conduct research to build strong evidence
D. To conduct clinical trials to develop new medicines
A. To utilize relevant scientific evidence to provide highest quality of care
Key words: relevant, highest quality
What type of research method uses previously collected data, such as medical charts
Secondary method (retrospective)
**In what phase of clinical trials does the evaluation of safety/data takes place
A. Phase I
B. Phase II
C. Phase III
D. All of these answers are correct
D. All of these answers are correct
**Which of the following statements is false regarding the process of informed consent?
A. The process of informed consent consists of four elements: informing missing word(s) comprehension, assessment of autonomy, and consent
B. Once the consent form is signed by the subject, no further negotiation with the subject regarding their consent should occur during the protocol
C. Third parties in the consent process may act as witnesses or surrogate decision maker
D. The consent form may be given to a potential subject to take home and review
B. Once the consent form is signed by the subject, no further negotiation with the subject regarding their consent should occur during the protocol
Key words: negotiation
**Equitable selection is based on which ethical principle?
Justice, because the risks of research should be shared equally
**Which of the following explains the ‘temporality’ criteria of causality?
A. Cause should occur before the effect
B. Cause should occur at the same time as effect
C. Effect should occur before the cause
D. Cause and effect should occur simultaneously
A. Cause should occur before the effect
In a case-control study:
A. First, the outcome is assessed and then the exposure is measured
B. First, the exposure is measured and then the outcome is assessed
C. Exposures and outcomes are assessed at the same time
D. Either exposures or outcomes can be measured first
A. First, the outcome is assessed and then the exposure is measured
In ____ randomization, the probability of being assigned to a group changes based on the responses of the prior patients
Adaptive
(think changes = adaptive)
**In _____ randomization, subject group assignments are balanced in order to account for characteristics of the study population, such as age and race
Stratified
A study that involves treatment A or B, then measuring outcomes over a 6 month period, is an example of _____ design
Parallel groups
(Because A is parallel to B)
The ______ is the reciprocal of absolute risk difference. SATA
A. Relative risk
B. Relative proportion
C. Number needed to treat
D. Number needed to harm
C. Number needed to treat
D. Number needed to harm
Which of the following are the reasons for conducting an observational experiment instead of a clinical trial? SATA
A. Sometimes it is not ethical to randomize subjects to harmful exposures (ex. Tobacco smoke)
B. An observational study has higher internal validity
C. A clinical trial is more expensive to conduct
D. A clinical trial has lower external validity than an observational study
A, C, D
**For a study examining the effect of exposure to large doses of acetaminophen and acute liver failure, the time period between when a person is exposed to acetaminophen and when the acute liver failure starts is called the:
A. Person-time
B. Induction period
C. Latency period
D. Follow up time
E. None of these answers are correct
B. Induction period
(induction because it’s when the study really begins - 1st exposure)
Which of the following study designs is LESS likely to produce estimates of effect which are biased due to selection bias and confounding?
A. A population based control study
B. A clinic based case control study using data from an administrative claims database
C. A prospective cohort study
D. A retrospective cohort study
E. A large randomized clinical trial
E. A large randomized clinical trial
(T/F): selection is more likely to occur in cohort studies than in case-control
False
**The process of analyzing data from a sample and using those results to determine the related values in the target population is called:
A. Statistical afference
B. Statistical induction
C. Statistical deduction
D. Statistical interference
D. Statistical interference
**Which of the following statistical distributions is an example of a normal distribution?
A. F distribution
B. Z distribution
C. Binomial distribution
D. X2 distribution
B. Z distribution
Which of the following represents the numerator when computing the incidence of prostate cancer among men in Oregon in 2012?
A. All cases of prostate cancer in Oregon in 2012
B. Newly diagnosed cases of prostate cancer in Oregon in 2012
C. All men in Oregon at risk for prostate cancer in 2012
D. All men who have received chemotherapy for prostate cancer in Oregon in 2012
B. Newley diagnosed cases of prostate cancer in Oregon in 2012
**If dizziness is assessed by asking patients to rate their dizziness on a scale from 1 to 100, what level of measurement is this
A. Ratio
B. Ordinal
C. Independent
D. Nominal
B. Ordinal
** You are conducting a study and a set an α level of 0.10. Your analysis produces a p-value of 0.09. Which of the following conclusions should you make?
A. You have reached statistical significance and reject the null hypothesis.
B. You have reached statistical significance and fail to reject the null hypothesis.
C. You have failed to reach statistical significance and reject the null hypothesis.
D. You have failed to reach statistical significance and fail to fail to reject the null hypothesis.
A. You have reached statistical significance and reject the null hypothesis
Which of the following does not describe a function of descriptive statistics?
A. Summarizing data in tables
B. Computing the mean diastolic blood pressure from a sample
C. Analyzing the significance of a relationship between variables
D. All of these answers describe functions of descriptive statistics
C. Analyzing the significance of a relationship between variables
**You are conducting a study and a set an α level of 0.10. Your analysis produces a p-value of 0.09. Which of the following conclusions should you make?
A. You have reached statistical significance and reject the null hypothesis.
B. You have reached statistical significance and fail to reject the null hypothesis.
C. You have failed to reach statistical significance and reject the null hypothesis.
D. You have failed to reach statistical significance and fail to fail to reject the null hypothesis.
A. You have reached statistical significance and reject the null hypothesis
**Which of the following statements about conclusions and errors in hypothesis testing is correct
A. Type I error is also known as a β error.
B. Statistical power can be defined as (1 - Type I error rate).
C. Failing to reject the null when it is false is a Type II error.
D. The confidence level is unrelated to the Type I error rate.
C. Failing to reject the null when it is false is a type II error
In a study of the effect of daily meditation sessions on blood pressure, the difference in pressure for a group of patients receiving medication therapy and daily mediation is 8.6 mm Hg lower than those receiving medication alone (95% confidence interval: -2.6 to 19.8) Which of the following is a correct conclusion from the confidence interval?
A. The researchers are 95% confident that there is an 8.6 mm Hg difference in blood pressure between the groups
B. There is 95% chance that the researchers are correct about their 8.6 mm Hg between the groups
C. The difference between the two groups is statistically significant
D. The researchers are 95% confident that the interval of -2.6 to 19.8 contains difference.
A. The researchers are 95% confident that there is an 8.6 mm Hg difference in blood pressure between the groups
Which of the following statements regarding confidence intervals is correct? [Note: in each statement, assume that all other factors are being held constant.]
A. Increasing the sample size will increase the width of a confidence interval
B. Decreasing the point estimate will decrease the width of a confidence interval
C. Increasing the confidence level will not change the width of missing word
D. Decreasing the variability will decrease the width of the confidence interval
D. Decreasing the variability will decrease the width of the confidence interval
A group of researchers conducted a study to compare the effects a new dosing regimen for pneumonia compared to the standard regimen. They found that the median time to clinical cure with the new dosing regimen was 10% shorter than with the standard regimen (p = 0.025). What is the correct interpretation of the p-value?
A. There is a 2.5% probability that a patient receiving the new regimen will have their time to cure reduced by 10%.
B. The probability of committing a Type I error rate in this study was 97.5%.
C. The probability that a chance process would produce a 10% reduction in time to clinical cure was 2.5%
D. There is not enough information to interpret the p-value.
C. The probability that a chance process would produce a 10% reduction in time to clinical cure was 2.5%
What is a z-score?
A. A z-score represents the number of standard deviations that a raw score is above or below the mean
B. A z-score is greater than the standard error of the mean
C. A z-score is equal to the standard deviations of a sampling mean
D. All of the above
A. A z-score represents the number of standard deviations that a raw score is above or below the mean
which of the following study designs observe study participants at only one point in time?
(didn’t have choices)
cross sectional study design
which of the following study designs has the greatest risk of bias from temporal precedence?
Cross- sectional study design
**which of the following terms best describes inappropriately inferring associations made across groups to individuals within those groups?
(didn’t have choices)
ecological fallacy
**A placed controlled clinical trial is conducted to assess whether a new antihypertensive drug is more effective than standard therapy. A total of 500 patients with essential HTN are enrolled and randomly assigned to one of the two groups (new drug & placebo). Both the participants and the experimenters do not know which group got the experimental new treatment. The study is best described as which of the following?
double blind randomized controlled trial
**The proportion of people with disease, who have positive test results is referred to:
a. Specificity
b. Sensitivity
c. Responsiveness
d. None of the above
b. sensitivity
**In some non‐randomized studies, patients are assigned to certain treatment groups based on some characteristic that they possess, which could affect the outcome of the study. This type of bias is known as:
a. Volunteer bias
b. Contamination bias
c. Selection bias
d. Correlation bias
e. None of the above
c. selection bias
A study is conducted to determine the effect of Vitamin C tablets on mortality. After the study is completed, the data indicate that patients taking Vitamin C tablets had a decrease in mortality. However, the study design did not control for the effects of dietary Vitamin C. Which of the following terms best describes the role of DIETARY Vitamin C in this study?
a. Independent variable
b. Dependent variable
c. Confounding variable
d. Control variable
e. None of the above
c. confounding variable
Which of the following best describes the function of the inclusion criteria for a study?
a. Assures patient safety
b. Describes the characteristics of the sample
c. Is important in evaluating the external validity of the study
d. B and C
e. None of the above
d.) b and c
**Patients may alter their behavior when they know they are being observed under
study conditions. Which of the following terms best describes this phenomenon?
a. Contamination bias
b. Selection bias
c. Volunteer bias
d. Attention bias (Hawthorne effect)
e. Admission rate bias (Berkson’s paradox)
d. attention bias (Hawthorne effect)
A study is conducted to compare the efficacy of two medications (Drug A and Drug
B) for the treatment of hypertension. One hundred patients are enrolled in the study
(50 receiving Drug A and 50 receiving Drug B). Which of the following terms BEST
describes patients receiving the study medications?
a. Population
b. Sample
c. Experimental group
d. Control group
e. None of the above
B. sample
**A study was conducted to compare an experimental adherence program with usual care for the treatment of dyslipidemia. Patients were randomly assigned to be in one of these two groups. At the end of the study, the investigators found that the mean total cholesterol level in the adherence group was less than the mean total cholesterol level in the usual care group. The following statistical test could be used to determine if the difference was statistically significant:
chi squared
**5 Pearson correlation coefficient value for the association between the number of hours studied and the percent grade obtained on an exam was -0.82 (p=0.001). The best description of this relationship is that as the amount of study time:
increased, grades decreased
**Two pharmacists conducted a pilot study to examine the influence of follow up phone calls to patients taking medications for hypertension. The phone calls were used to remind patients that they should take their medicine. What statistical test would the pharmacists use to determine if the mean blood pressure at the beginning of the study (baseline) was statistically significant less than the average at the end of the study (post-treatment)
paired t-test
The authors of a research report state, “The difference in mean blood pressure between the drug treatment group and the placebo group was statistically significant”. Assuming a= 0.05 which of the following p-values would indicate that the difference was statistically significant?
0.04
Which statistical test will be used to compare the proportion of students who got grade “A” in economics class at the University of Illinois as compared to the students at the Chicago State University?
chi suare test
Which statistical test will be used to analyze the mean test scores of a group of students who took a class as compared to another group of students who did not take the class?
independent groups t-test
The linear regression line for predicting final exam grades (Y) in a drug literature evaluation class from midterm scores (X) in the same course is found to be: Y= 27.5+2.5X. If the value of X increases from 80 to 81 (ie. By one unit), the value of Y will increase by ____ points.
increase by 2.5 points
Assume that the authors of a research report stated that they used a chi-square test for the analysis of the primary outcome variable. Based on this information, the authors were comparing the:
proportion of patients in two groups
(T/F): In a simple linear regression, the goal is to fit a linear trend line through the middle of a scatterplot of data
true
(T/F): In a multiple linear regression, the adjusted R^2 is always greater than or equal to the R^2.
false
The “Discussion” section of a research article should include the following:
B. Strengths and limitations of the study
C. An interpretation of study findings, including comparison with previous research
Which of the following can increase the external validity (generalizability) of a research study?
Random stratified sampling
Which of the following describes an “Intention to Treat” analysis?
All patients who were enrolled randomly allocated to treatment are included in the analysis and are analyzed in the groups to which they were randomized
The “Introduction” section of a research article should include (3)
A. Research objectives
B. Background information on what is already known about the topic
C. Rationale for conducting the study
The “Results: section of a research study should include the following(2)
B. study participants characteristics
D. study findings including association between independent and dependent variables
Which of the following describes a “Per-Protocol” analysis ?
only the patients who completed the trial are included in the analysis. Those who withdraw or were lost to follow-up are excluded
**Which type of sampling is represented by recruiting patients who are available to researcher at a given place or time? For example, recruitment of patients coming to pharmacy at a specific time and day of the week or collecting data from people shopping at a mall
convenience sampling
(T/F): Purposive sampling produces a representative sample of the overall study population
false
A study was conducted to examine the association between drinking beer and obesity. A random sample of individuals completed a questionnaire on their beer drinking habits and their body mass index. What type of study design is this?
Cross-sectional study
Which of the following best describes the bias regression to the mean?
Extreme scores on a variable at pre-test which leads to more room for a score to approach the mean value than might otherwise be expected
Which of the following explains a “mediator” variable?
A mediator is an intermediate variable in a causal pathway, which links the primary independent variable and the dependent variable
Which of the following explains an “omitted variable”?
It is a variable which was not included in the analysis, leading to residual confounding
Which of the following explains a “moderator” variable?
A moderator alters the strength and/or direction of the relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variable
A study examined the 10 year trend in annual consumption of tobacco from to 2010. The study wanted to analyze the effect of an increase in tax on tobacco products in 2005. What type of study design is this?
time series
**Sampling of participants based on their specific characteristics such as age above 65 years or males only is known as ___ sampling
purposive
Which of the following best describes a study which collects aggregated information from groups and compares groups of individuals not individuals themselves?
ecological study
Which of the following study designs would best capture immediately and long-term changes resulting from an intervention?
Time-series study design
This type of study is ideal for studying the causes of a condition, the course of a sieges, or the risk factors of a condition because it is longitudinal and follows a group of subjects forward in time. It cannot prove causation, but because it follows patients forward in time, it can provide a good evidence supporting cause-and-effect relationship.
prospective cohort
Which of the following best describes the extent to which observations in a study population extrapolate to the overall population of interest?
Generalizability
A new drug, Superstatin, is indicated for treating dyslipidemia; however, the FDA is concerned that this drug may cause liver toxicity. There were a few reports of liver toxicity before the drug came to the market; however, not enough reports existed to conclude an increased risk of liver toxicity. Which one of the following study designs is best suited to identify whether an increased risk of liver toxicity exists with superstatin?
A. Randomized controlled clinical trial
B. Prospective cohort study
C. Case-control study
D. Cross-sectional study
B. Prospective cohort study
To determine if fasting is associated with dengue fever, data from 60 patients with dengue fever were collected. These patients were matched for age, sex, and race to 40 patients without dengue fever. The hospital charts of these patients were then reviewed to determine whether they also fasted prior to their illness. What is the type of study design?
A. Cross-sectional study
B. Prospective cohort study
C. Case-control study
D. Retrospective cohort study
E. Randomized clinical trial
C. Case-control study
In a clinical trial, 60 people received a new drug and 50 people received a placebo. Of the people on the new drug, 40 of the 60 showed a positive response and 25 of the 50 people on placebo showed a positive response. What is the most appropriate statistical test to use in determining if the new drug shows more of an effect than the placebo?
a. Chi‐square analysis
b. Mann Whitney U test
c. Independent student t‐test
d. None of the above
a. Chi‐square analysis
A study is conducted prospectively to determine the effects of Drug A versus Drug B in preventing myocardial infarctions (MIs). One hundred patients in each group were treated with either Drug A or Drug B, and the following results were obtained over a 10 year period: Drug A = 7% of patients had an MI Drug B = 10% of patients had an MI What would be the appropriate inferential statistical test that would be used to compare the percentage of patients experiencing a myocardial infarction associated with Drug A versus Drug B?
a. Chi‐square analysis
b. One‐way ANOVA
c. Independent student t‐test
d. None of the above
a. Chi‐square analysis
Leitzmann et al. examined the link between drinking coffee and gallstone disease. Individuals who drank between 2 and 4 cups of coffee per day had a relative risk of developing symptomatic gallstones of 0.6. What type of study was this?
a. Case report
b. Cross‐sectional study
c. Case control study
d. Clinical trial
e. Cohort study
e. Cohort study
The researcher wants to investigate blood cholesterol levels in patients who follow a diet either low or moderate in fat and who take either a drug to lower cholesterol or a placebo. What is the most appropriate statistical test to use in analyzing the data?
a. Independent t‐test
b. ANOVA
c. Chi‐square test
d. Mann‐Whitney U test
e. Wilcoxon signed rank test
b. ANOVA
The independent variable is marital status (single/married/separated or divorced). The dependent variable is whether or not the person had been hospitalized in the preceding 12 months. The most appropriate statistical test is a(n):
a. t‐test
b. ANOVA
c. Chi‐square test
d. Mann‐Whitney U test
e. Paired t‐test
c. Chi‐square test
