Quanti - Data Collection

Question 1

What is data collection?

Answer 1

The process of acquiring subjects and collecting the data for a study.

Process must be clearly reported.

Usually under “Methods” section.

Question 2

3 things to appraise in data collection

Answer 2

Recruitment of study participants

Consistency in data collection

Control in the study design

Question 3

What to note for the recruitment of study participants?

Answer 3

1. Period: in the beginning vs throughout
2. The design of the study determines the method of selecting the participants.
3. How many participants? Sample size

Question 4

What is consistency in data collection and how do we ensure consistency?

Answer 4

Consistency is the key to maintain accuracy of data collection

Data collectors: training process, qualification, inter-rater reliability

Question 5

Purpose of control in the study design

Answer 5

• To minimise the influence of intervening forces on the findings.
• Extraneous variables
  e.g. acupressure -> sleep quality
  e.g. noise, temperature, lighting

Question 6

What are the types of data

Answer 6

Primary
Secondary

Question 7

What is primary data

Answer 7

Data collected for a particular study

Question 8

What is secondary data?

Answer 8

Data collected from previous research and stored in a database

Question 9

3 methods to collect data

Answer 9

Self-reports
Observations
Biophysiologic

Question 10

Self-reports data collection methods

Answer 10

Interviews
Questionnaire
Scale

Question 11

Types of interviews used for data collection

Answer 11

Can be unstructured or semi-structured

Question 12

What is a semi-structured interview?

Answer 12

e.g. A explored how nurses and doctors make the transition from active intervention to palliative and end-of-life care. They collected their data via semistructured interviews with 13 nurses and 13 medical staff.

Interviews began with the question,”could you tell me about what happened around the time of (patient’s name)
death?”

Question 13

What are questionnaires?

Answer 13

Respondents complete the instrument themselves

Usually with closed-ended or open-ended questions

Question 14

What are scales? Examples of commonly used scales?

Answer 14

a device that assigns a numeric score to people along a continuum

e.g. Likert scale, Visual analog scale, Rating scale

Question 15

What is a Likert scale

Answer 15

of several declarative statements (items) that express a viewpoint on a topic.

e.g:
People with cancer almost always die. (Strongly disagree/disagree/uncertain/agree/strongly agree)

Chemotherapy is very effective in treating cancer (Strongly/disagree/disagree/ uncertain/agree/strongly agree)

Question 16

What is a visual analog scale?

Answer 16

Used to measure strength, magnitude, or intensity of subjective feelings, sensations, or attitudes

e.g.:
Participants are asked to mark on the line. (“No pain” on one extreme end and “Pain as bad as it can possibly be” on the opposite end)

Researchers measure with a ruler the distance from the left end of the line to the participant’s mark

Question 17

What is a rating scale?

Answer 17

A number is assigned to each category and the respondent choose the number

e.g. Wong Baker pain scale

Question 18

What are the different types of response set biases?

Answer 18

1. Social desirability bias
2. Extreme response set bias
3. Acquiescence response set bias

Question 19

What is social desirability bias?

Answer 19

A tendency to misrepresent attitudes or traits by giving that are consistent with prevailing social views

e.g. “Do you think it’s okay to drink alcohol frequently?”
Yes or No

” How many hours per day do you spend on your phone?
<1 hr, 1-2 hrs, >3 hrs

Question 20

What is extreme response set bias?

Answer 20

A tendency to consistently express extreme attitudes or feelings (e.g.strongly agree or strongly disagree, no middle ground)

Leads to distortions because extreme responses may be unrelated to the trait being measured

Question 21

What is acquiescence response set bias?

Answer 21

Tendency to agree with all questions within the survey regardless of the content

e.g. “Are you outgoing and social?”
“Which do you prefer: a quiet night in or a raging party?”

Question 22

How do we collect data via observations?

Answer 22

Unstructured observations:
- Happens spontaneously and recorded in words

Structured observations:
- Category systems/Checklists
- Rating scales
e.g. NEECHAM Confusion Scale an observational instrument for recording the
presence and severity of acute confusion

Question 23

What are biophysical measures?

Answer 23

Blood pressure, temperature, hormone levels, bacterial counts, tissue biopsies,
blood level

Question 24

Why do we collect data via biophysical measures?

Answer 24

Nursing interventions affect physiologic outcomes, aids in product assessment.

Why use it?

• Accurate, precise compared to self-report measures
• Objective
• Patients cannot easily distort measurements of biophysiologic functioning
• Instruments provide valid measures of targeted variables.