Intro bio stats (1) Flashcards
Preclinical research -
- Basic
- In labs on animals
- Focused on theory and understanding mechanisms of disease/therapies
Clinical research -
- Appled
- Human subjects
- Focused on testing theories that help find new and better ways to detect, diagnose, treat and prevent disease/develop therapies
Step 1 of the clinical research process?
Identify the research question
Identify the research question (step 1) -
- specify question to investigate
- most important and often most difficult because it controls the direction of all subsequent planning and analysis, design and statistics included
Step 2 of the clinical research process?
Design the study
Design the study (step 2) -
To plan methods of implementation to investigate the research question considering:
- Who will be studied
- How subjects will be chosen
- What to measure
- What statistical methods for data analysis
Step 3 of the clinical research process?
Implement the Study
Implement the Study (step 3) -
- To implement the plans designed in steps 1 and 2
2. To collect data - most time-consuming part of the research process
Step 4 of the clinical research process?
Analyze the Data
Analyze the Data (step 4)
- To analyze, interpret, and draw valid conclusions about the obtained data
- To apply statistical procedures to summarize and explore quantitative information in a meaningful way to address research question
Step 5 of the clinical research process?
Disseminate Findings
Disseminate Findings (step 5) -
- To fulfill a responsibility to share findings with the appropriate audience so others can apply the information to clinical practice or to further research
- To pull together of all the materials and apply them to a generalized/theoretical framework
3 types of research:
- Descriptive research
- Exploratory research
- Explanatory research
Descriptive Research -
- qualitative as well as quantitative
2. describe a group of individuals on a set of variables, to document their characteristics
Descriptive research uses what sources?
It uses questionnaires; interviews; direct observation; or the use of databases
Types of descriptive research:
Case report study - document unusual conditions/effect of innovative interventions
descriptive study
Exploratory research -
- observation WITHOUT intervention
2. Finds relationships between factors
Types of exploratory research:
- Cohort studies - prospective to determine status with respect to disease or outcome and their exposure to certain risk factors
- Case-control studies - compare patients with (cases) and without (controls) a disorder or outcome of interest (determines risk relationship between risk factor and disorder)
Explanatory research -
- Experimental with intervention
2. Establish cause and between interventions and outcomes
Type of explanatory research:
- RCT - comparison of an experiment intervention and a placebo
Random assignment
Controls for bias
What type of study is a description of interesting, new and unique cases to build a foundation for clinical science and as a means of sharing special information among researchers
case study
What type of study design provides an overall picture of the group’s characteristics
Descriptive study
cohort study -
- [cohort: a group of individuals who are followed together over time]
- to select a cohort who do not yet have the outcome of interest and follow them to see if they develop the disorder
case-control study -
- [cases: group of those with the disorder]
- [controls: comparison group without the disorder]
- to select cases and controls and look backward in time to determine if the groups differ with respect to their exposure histories
cross-sectional study -
study a cohort of subjects at one point in time and draw conclusions about a population
Longitudinal study -
to follow a cohort of subjects over multiple points in time performing repeated measurements
RCT -
- It assigns subjects randomly to at least two comparison groups
- It provides the strongest evidence for cause and effect relationships
- It is considered the gold standard of true experimental designs
Continuous data -
ex:
Data with numeric values
ex: Age, Weight, Height, A1c level, test score
Categorical data -
ex:
Data with categorical values
ex: Gender, Race, Exposure/Disease status
Normal distribution -
symmetrical around the mean (bell shaped)