Week 2 Reading Polgar and Thomas: The Formulation of Research Questions Flashcards
Research planning
= “a process through which we transfor our initial ideas into well-planned, ethical and realistic research projects”
Effect of environmental and social changes on research
public and political concern about the ‘burden of disease’ for a community results in funding bodies preferentially channeling resources to researchers in these areas
e.g. obesity, climate change
Reiterative process for formulating research questions
- Literature review
- Research problems and questions
- Aims and hypotheses
- Methods: sampling, design, data collection
- Ethics and available resources
Essential research questions for evidence-based medicine and health care
(categories of practice)
- improving diagnosis and screening
- producing and evaluating strategies for predicting health outcomes
- devising and evaluating treatments
- harm minimisation
Examples of research problems (in this text)
- environmental and social changes (e.g. obesity, climate change)
- demographic changes (e.g. ageing, immigration)
- scientific and technological advances
- cost-effectiveness of health services
how do research problems arise from demographic changes?
in general, research problems arise from the limitations of the current health services being offered to a population with changing needs
how do research problems arise from scientific and technological advances?
research problems arise from the need to translate pure research into practical solutions
e.g. stem cell research –> treating heart disease, diabetes, Parkinson’s
what is the importance of literature reviews in formulating research questions?
- provides background knowledge of the
context of the research problem - reviewing literature and identifying strengths and gaps in
knowledge also ensures that a research
question is aimed at filling
these gaps and not wastefully repeating old
discoveries
PICO approach to idenitfying research papers of interest
P = target population/patients
I = intervention
C = comparison
O = outcome measures
e.g. ‘A double-blind controlled trial of bilateral fetal nigral transplantation on Parkinson’s disease’
The most widely used search tool for health research publications
PubMed: the web-based Public Medline
what does a research question do
guide the investigation and guide us in producing evidence required to solve the research problem
example to illustrate methodological considerations
‘Ribavirin for Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever: systematic review and meta-analysis’
CCHF
Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever
Quantitative research
= tests a hypothesis about relationships between variables or differences between groups
Qualitative research
= understanding the meaning of how people experience specific issues
