Health Sciences Flashcards
What does rigor in qualitative research consist of?
Credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability
Credibility
- Data triangulation, methodological triangulation, investigator triangulation and theory triangulation
- Prolonged data collection
- Member checking
Transferability
- Thick description
- Explain sampling strategy
- Discuss findings with existing literature from different settings
Dependability
- Data saturation
- Iterative data collection
- Iterative data analysis
- Flexible emergent research design
Confirmability
- Search literature that disconfirms findings
- Peer debriefing
- Reflexivity
- Audit trail
Example of selection bias
In an RCT for a hypertension drug, participants are recruited through a fitness magazine, leading to a sample of health-conscious individuals. The sample isn’t representative of the broader hypertension population, potentially leading to misleading conclusions.
Example of performance bias
In a double-blind pain relief medication trial, nurses know which group participants are in, potentially leading to performance bias. They may unintentionally offer more support to the experimental group, such as frequent check-ins and additional pain relief measures, even if the medication isn’t more effective.
Example of attrition bias
In a long-term smoking cessation study, some participants who struggled the most with quitting drop out, creating attrition bias. This skews the results as those who dropped out had different experiences. Dropouts are related to the study’s outcome (quitting smoking), potentially overestimating the effectiveness.
Example of detection bias
In a study comparing a new breast cancer screening test to the standard one, radiologists, aware of the research, may inadvertently interpret results more cautiously. This can lead to more false negatives in the new test group. Measurement differs between the groups due to radiologists’ awareness, potentially underestimating the new test’s accuracy.
How do you deal with selection bias?
- Random sequence generation
- Allocation concealment
How do you deal with performance bias?
- Blinding of participants and personnel
How do you deal with attrition bias?
- Be transparent about incomplete outcome data
- Intention-to-treat analysis
How do you deal with detection bias?
- Blinding of the outcome assessment
What do you look at when assessing the quality of an RCT?
- Criteria for internal validity: RoB
(randomization, blinding) - Criteria for external validity: generalizability
(in- and exclusion criteria) - Criteria for precision: accuracy
(sample size)
True or false? A content analysis is deductive.
True