Research skills

Question 1

Difference between normal range and reference range?

Answer 1

“Normal range” is a range derived from a healthy reference population. Reference ranges take into account age, gender, ethnic origin and physiological status (pregnant or not).

Question 2

What guides data analysis?

Answer 2

The research question the data is trying to answer and the hypotheses to be tested.

Question 3

What contributes to validity of dataset?

Answer 3

A standard operating procedure (SOP) for data collection and analysis
Small proportion of missing data
Explicit inclusion and exclusion criteria
A large and diverse sample

Question 4

When can you exclude outliers?

Answer 4

A case of a mistake in data collection. e.g value inputted is out of range of acceptable values.