Selecting a study design Flashcards
Qualitative
Flexible and modifiable throughout the process
Interviews, open-ended questions, observations, or focus groups
Quantitative
Specific, well-structured, valid, and reliable
Online surveys: e-mail, websites, and mobile phones
Cross-sectional study
One contact with the study population
Before-and-after study
Pre-test and post-test to measure effectiveness of some treatment
Longitudinal study
Studying the same group of individuals over an extended period of time
Retrospective
Looks backward in time using data from the past, clinical history, or a subject’s recall of a situation/condition
Prospective
Study in which the subjects are first identified and then followed forward as time passes
Retrospective-prospective
Information on earlier periods is gathered from records or recall and participants are followed prospectively for a certain period of time
Experimental
Intervention
Assumed to be the cause of a change
Non-experimental
Starts from the effect or outcome and attempts to determine the CAUSES
Semi-experimental
Mix between experimental and non-
experimental studies
The matched control experimental design
Once two groups are formed, the researcher decides through randomization or otherwise which group is to be considered control, and which is experimental
The placebo design
2 or 3 groups, depending on whether there is a control group
1st group: treatment
2nd group: placebo
3rd group: nothing
ETHICAL DILEMMA
Comparative design
compare effectiveness of different treatments
can be experimental (pre-post) or non-experimental
Cross-over comparative experimental
ABAB format
Then the interventions are “crossed
over”; experimental group becomes
the control and vice versa
