research methods in ageing research

Question 1

clear differences between children and older adult research

Answer 1

Clear differences between children and older adult research- Punch, 2002
* Consent
* Task complexity
* Task instructions
* Children are more influential and vulnerable
* Views about society- children may have distorted views
* Child research is more complex in the sense that researchers must build rapport

Question 2

what is a cohort study

Answer 2

• A cohort study is simply a set of individuals who share some characteristics and who are followed up over time. Research follows a cohort across their lives (usually age in years)
• 2 types of cohort studies- retrospective and prospective

Question 3

prospective cohort studies: advantages and disadvantages

Answer 3

Prospective cohort studies= individuals are followed over time and data is collected as their characteristics or circumstances change. This is longitudinal in nature
* Use of prospective cohort studies- gather large amount of detailed data on attituded, experiences, current health, habits, progression of health, demographics, family relationships etc….

ADVANATGES of prospective-
 They can show progression of how health declines over time
 They can show impacts of age
 They can show changing attitudes, experiences that other studies cannot
 You can use same participants
* DISADVANATGES
 YOU MAY HAVE TO FOLLOW LARGE NUMBERS OF SUBJECTS FOR A LONG TIME
 THEY CAN BE EXPENSIVE AND TIME CONUSIMG
 THEY ARE NOT good for rare diseases
 They are not good for diseases with long latency
 Differential loss to follow up can introduce bias

Question 4

retrospective cohort studies

Answer 4

Retrospective cohort studies= different from prospective as they do not look at longitudinal progression. In retrospective studies individuals are samples and information is collected about their past
* Example- Tonelii et al., 2021- looked at dementia and multi morbidities, and the challenges faced within the health system
* ADVANTAGES
 Less expensive than prospective
 Can be performed immediately as they rely on past experiences or past information
 Less time
* DISADVANTAGES
 Not good for very rare diseases
 If one uses records that were not designed for the study, the available data may be of poor quality
 There is frequently an absence of data on potential confounding factors if the data was recorded in the past
 It may be difficult to identify an appropriate cohort and appropriate comparison group
 Differential losses to follow up can also bias retrospective cohort studies

Question 5

randomised control trials- AD + DIS

Answer 5

 The national institute for health and care excellence defines it as;
 A study in which a number of similar people are randomly assigned to 2 or more groups to test a specific drug, treatment or other intervention
 One group (the experimental group) has the intervention being testes
 The other (the control) has n alternative intervention, a dummy intervention (placebo) or no intervention at all
 Can be double blinded or single blinded
 Outcomes
 The groups are followed up to see how effective the experimental intervention was
 Outcomes are measured at specific times and any difference in response between the groups is assessed statistically. This method is also used to reduce bias

 ADVANTAGES
– Clear comparison between groups
– Blinding and double blinding minimizes bias
– Considered gold standard to publish
 DISADVANTAGES
– Lack of applicability
– May need a large sample size(power calculation)
– Sometimes its obvious which group participants are in
– Ethical limitations- consent etc…

Question 6

observational studies (non randomised)

Answer 6

– Qualitive or quantitative (this is debatable)
– Used t collect information by observing the subjects in a natural environment and then analyzing the information
– Based on behavioral patterns psychological character, attitude and beliefs of the subject
– Consists of watching, listening, touching, and recording the behavior, attitude, and characteristics of objects or phenomena or living beings
– ADVANTAGES
 Easy to conduct
 Natural surroundings
 Less cooperation form ppts is needed
 High accuracy with more than one observer
– DISADVANATGES
 Not everything is observed, important things can be missed
 Observer bias-
 Time consuming
 No background to the participants
 Expensive to do
 Ethical- if covert, there Is issues of consent. Also not debriefed after