Research Design

Question 1

misra er al (2013)

Answer 1

conducted a cross sectional survey design which recruited patients and the dentist who provided treatment

Question 2

patients and dentists were asked (4)

Answer 2

general issues discussed
specific info given about oral health
what procedures were performed
further actions planned and agreed to

Question 3

who recalled more info? dentists or patients

Answer 3

dentists

Question 4

dentists recalled giving more (2)

Answer 4

dental health education than patients remembered

discussing more future actions that patients remembered

Question 5

technical aspects (crowns/bridges) of the encounter were more often reported by both dentist and patient than were

Answer 5

psychological issues (pain/embarrassment)

Question 6

both indicated higher levels of — discussion, than dental health education or agreed future actions

Answer 6

procedure

Question 7

there was no relationship found between patient really and

Answer 7

satisfaction

Question 8

conclusions

Answer 8

dentist recall may be higher due to their control over the consultation structure

Question 9

research

Answer 9

results from individual studies

Question 10

evidence

Answer 10

cumulative results across studies

Question 11

what is the synthesis of all valid research studies that answer a specific question?

Answer 11

evidence

Question 12

what does evidence-based practice involve?

Answer 12

tracking down the available evidence, assessing validity, and using the best evidence to inform treatment decisions

Question 13

in addition to a significant literature on a topic, clinicians must also consider (3)

Answer 13

clinical circumstances
experience and professional judgement
patient’s values and preferences

Question 14

validity

Answer 14

“closeness to the truth”
the degree to which the design and method provide for accurate investigation of event in question
as research reviewers you have the opportunity to asses both internal and external validity

Question 15

examples of threats to internal validity (3)

Answer 15

selection bias
maturation
instrumentation

Question 16

— — to groups addresses many threats to internal validity, but not all

Answer 16

random assignment

Question 17

external validity is the ability to generalize findings: (3)

Answer 17

beyond the subjects in the study
beyond the environmental constraints of the current study
to other temporal periods

Question 18

as controls increase (increasing internal validity) the generalizability of findings may

Answer 18

suffer (decreasing external validity)

Question 19

types of research bias (2)

Answer 19

systematic error that causes a preference for one outcome over another
problematic or incomplete controls that result in skewed observations

Question 20

pretrial bias (2)

Answer 20

selection bias

channeling bias

Question 21

selection bias

Answer 21

procedure for selection of participants is different across groups

Question 22

channeling bias

Answer 22

placing participants in study conditions according to prognosis, age, fragility, etc

Question 23

interviewer bias

Answer 23

error introduced by researcher collecting data

Question 24

chronology bias

Answer 24

historic control subject to changes in practice

Question 25

recall bias

Answer 25

skewed or faulty recollection of events/associations

Question 26

transfer bias

Answer 26

differential attrition across conditions

Question 27

misclassification bias

Answer 27

problems with operational definition of grouping variables

Question 28

performance bias

Answer 28

differences in clinical quality of intervention across providers

Question 29

citation bias

Answer 29

comparative evidence limited by what is accessible

Question 30

publication bias

Answer 30

previous evidence not available due to publication preferences

Question 31

confounding bias

Answer 31

observed association due to some unknown variable

Question 32

quantitative inquiry rooted in empiricism

Answer 32

only those phenomena which can be measured are "real" | measures are often numeric scales

Question 33

qualitative inquiry based in hermeneutics

Answer 33

the interpretation of contextual meaning | measures are subjective and dependent upon perceptual biases

Question 34

evidence hierarchy (strongest to weakest) (6)

Answer 34

``` systematic reviews and meta-analyses randomized controlled trials cohort studies case control studies cross sectional studies case reports ```

Question 35

experimental research is a type of --- inquiry

Answer 35

quantitative

Question 36

experimental research investigates

Answer 36

"cause"

Question 37

experimental research

Answer 37

studies in which the researcher controls or manipulates the variables under investigation

Question 38

observational research may be either

Answer 38

quantitative or qualitative

Question 39

observational research without experimental

Answer 39

controls (may include comparison to natural groups)

Question 40

observational research is sometimes called

Answer 40

"quasi experimental"

Question 41

observational research

Answer 41

designs provide for investigation of relationships, but not cause

Question 42

variable

Answer 42

any factor relevant to a particular study | may be known or unknown

Question 43

examples of variables (4)

Answer 43

age ethnicity socioeconomic status disease history

Question 44

independent variable

Answer 44

a factor or condition that changes naturally or is intentionally manipulated (ex. grouping variable) by the investigator to observe the effect - known and controlled by the experimenter - "causative factor"

Question 45

dependent variable

Answer 45

an observed variable in an experiment or study for which changes are determined by the level of one or more independent variables - a factor directly affected by another - "response" or "outcome"

Question 46

confounding variable

Answer 46

statistically, an extraneous variable that correlates significantly with both the dependent variable and the independent variable a factor not considered or recognized (unmeasured) by the researcher that has significant impact on the dependent variable or outcome of interest -"confounding influences" or "error"

Question 47

prospective research looks as

Answer 47

events that have not yet happened or constructs that have not yet been measured

Question 48

retrospective research looks at

Answer 48

data that already exists

Question 49

what is the strongest evidence for demonstrating cause and effect?

Answer 49

randomized control trial

Question 50

why do we do random assignment?

Answer 50

it reduces the effect of bias due to intervening variables | -assumes that confounding conditions will be equally distributed across groups

Question 51

appraising a study: what to look for (6)

Answer 51

``` who were the participants? how were they assigned to groups? what were the study conditions? hypotheses? assessment of intervention? how were the data analyzed? ```