Quanti - Sampling Process Flashcards
What is a sampling plan?
The overall plan for recruiting subjects to a study.
What is target population
The entire aggregation of cases (e.g. human), to which the researcher intends to generalize findings.
Defined by a set of eligibility criteria. (inclusion and exclusion criteria)
What are inclusion and exclusion criteria?
Inclusion: Primary traits of the population that will qualify
someone as a subject.
Exclusion:
- Factors that would preclude someone from being a subject.
- Factors potentially interfere the interpretation of results
Purpose of eligibility criteria
- Create homogenous sample that is of researcher’s interest.
- Assure the subject’s ability to participate in a study
- Eliminate the characteristics which would interfere results interpretation (Control the
extraneous factors)
What is accessible population?
- Portion of the target population, to whom the researcher can gain access to.
- Represents the target population as closely as possible
e.g. Target population: All Chinese patients with heart failure who meet the eligibility
criteria in Singapore
Accessible population: All Chinese patients with heart failure in NUH in Singapore
who meet the eligibility criteria.
What is sample?
A portion of the accessible population.
- reflects the relevant characteristics and
variations of the accessible population
What are some key considerations for a study sample?
- Representativeness
The extent the sample i similar to the accessible population. - Sampling bias
Systematic over/under-representation of some segment of the population in terms of a characteristic relevant to the research question
What constitutes sampling bias?
Non-response bias:
- when a significant segment of the accessible population refuse to participate.
- can be detected by comparing the characteristics
of the recruited subjects and the non-respondents.
E.g., Investigation of HRQoL of patients with Heart Failure
Questionnaire survey:
– 400, 210 completed the questionnaires, while 190 were not responded.
– One possible reason is that those with no response may experience more severe signs and symptoms
What does the researcher study in a descriptive research?
And what does he draw a conclusion about?
The researcher studies a sample.
He draws a conclusion about the target population.
What is sampling?
The process of selecting a portion of the accessible
population to represent the target population.
What is probability sampling?
- Random selection of subjects from the population.
- Each element in the population has an equal chance of being selected.
What is non-probability sampling?
- Select subjects with nonrandom methods.
- No way of estimating the probability of each subject’s
being included
What are the 3 approaches of probability sampling?
Simple random sampling
Stratified random sampling
Systematic samplling
What is simple random sampling?
- Process of randomly selecting a sample
from the accessible population - Step 1: Establish a “sampling frame”:
- The actual list of all the elements in the accessible population
- Step 2: Randomly selected the required number to the study by
- Random table
- Lucky draw
Advantages and disadvantages of simple random sampling
Advantage: Any difference between sample & population is only by chance.
Disadvantages: Time-consuming, full list of elements of the population might not be available