RESS 3 Lectures Flashcards
What is a ‘research’ type study in the context of clinically relevant studies?
Generates new knowledge where there is no or limited research evidence available and which has the potential to be generalisable or transferable.
What is a ‘audit’ type study in the context of clinically relevant studies?
a quality improvement process that seeks to improve patient care and outcomes through systematic review of care against explicit criteria and the implementation of change.
What is a ‘service evaluation’ type study in the context of clinically relevant studies?
evaluates a proposed service or current practice (e.g. acceptability and uptake) with the intention of generating information to inform local decision-making
What is a ‘audit-cum-service evaluation’ type study in the context of clinically relevant studies?
Combined audit and service evaluation. Establishes to entent to which clinical practice is achieveing a particular standard as well as a to estabilish what factors might be associated with those contexts , those patients or those practitioners who succeed in achieving this standard; and those who do not)
What is NICE?
The National Institute for Health & Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent organisation responsible for providing national guidance and advice to improve health and social care
What are the roles of NICE?
1) To reduce variation in the availability and quality of treatments and care
2) To help resolve uncertainty about which medicines and treatments work best and which are the best value for money for the NHS
3) To set national guidelines on how people with certain conditions should be treated
What is the mneumonic used to define the search terms used in research literature searches?
PECOS Patient/participant/people Exposure/event/experimental Intervention Comparison (if appropriate) Outcome Study design (if appropriate)
What are the 3 different options for locating studies with specific designs?
1) Free text searching using appropriate search terms
2) Using controlled vocab PECOS search terms
3) Using methodological/design PECOS search filters/limits
What does MeSH stand for?
Medical Subject Headings
What is Medlines controlled vocabulary thesaurus called?
MeSH
What are the 3 competing priorities that clinical studies require you to balance?
1) Design and conduct studies that provide the correct answers
2) Maximise the efficient use of resources
3) Comply with ethical, legal, institutional and professional regulations
Name the 4 potential sources of bias
Sampling/selection bias
Measurement bias
Analytical bias
Dissemination bias
What is sampling/selection bias?
Using non representative samples
This selection influences exposure and outcome
What are the 3 types of measurement bias?
Information bias - extent of information varies amongst participants
Observer bias - influence by prior knowledge/belief
Recall/response/prestige bias - influence by prior knowledge or belief
What are the 3 types of analytical bias?
Loss to follow up - specific participants excluded
Omitted variable bias - imprecise adjustment for confounding
Attribution bias - interpretation of causality
What is the 1 type of dissemination bias?
Publication bias: eventful results more likely to be published
What different types of studies have been developed to combat bias?
Cross sectional (lowest effectiveness) Case control Cohort Trial Meta analysis (highest effectiveness)
What are the 2 types of descriptive (inductive) studies?
Case study/series
Cross-sectional (descriptive)
What 2 categories are analytical studies further sub divided into?
Observational
Experimental
What are the 4 types of observational (selective sampling) studies?
Cross sectional (analytical)
Case/control
Cohort
What are the 2 types of experimental (selective exposure) studies?
Trial
Meta-analysis
What are the 3 key points outlined in the Belmont report in regards to ethics in research?
Respect for the person by gaining consent
Justice - equal burdens and benefits
Beneficence - risk is justified by knowledge gained by the study
What are the 4 types of potential sources of harm to participants?
Biological
Psychological
Social
Structural
What types of projects require formal ethical approval?
Research involving animals
Service evaluations involving vulnerable people
Projects involving a new intervention
Projects collecting new information on more than only existing service delivery
What is the definition of a target population?
The total finite population we wish to know about from which your sample is drawn
What is the definition of a study sample?
The participants drawn from the target population that constitutes our data set
What are the 3 different types of samples?
Complete samples
Unstratified random sampling
Stratified random sampling
What are complete samples?
The entire study population
What is unstratified random sampling?
Every member of the target population has the same chance of being sampled
What is stratified random sampling?
Randomly sample from the target population within each different variable e.g. age, sex etc
Every memeber within each group has the same chance of being sampled
At what figure does the p-value show that something is statistically significant?
<0.05
A 95% confidence interval without the null is the same as what?
a p-value of 0.05
What is the definition of ‘power’ in the context of research?
The probability of rejecting the null hypothesis when the null hypothesis is false
Making sure the sample size is big enough to prove an effect
How is the odds ratio calculated in categorical data?
Odds of the exposed/unexposed groups
What value that if it is included in the confidence interval shows that it is not significant in categorical data ?
1
What 3 values are calculated in continuous data to calculate confidence interval?
Mean
Standard deviation
Estimated sample size
What value if not included in the confidence interval in continuous data shows it is significant?
0
How are the odds ratio for 2 groups calculated?
Odds of the event for exposed individuals/odds of an event for unexposed individuals
What is a covariante?
variables that affect the exposure/outcome
What 3 questions are used to assess which covarieantes may be important to include in an analytical study?
1) What are the (likely) causes of the exposure?
2) What are the (likely) causes of the outcome?
3) What are (likely to be) caused by the exposures?
The confounders are formed from what 2 covariates?
Causes the exposure
Causes the outcome
The competing exposure is formed from what 2 covariates?
Causes the outcome
Likely to be caused by the exposure