WRAP questions Flashcards
AIM:
We performed a study to assess whether neonatal hypertension is associated with maternal SSRI use during late pregnancy.
METHODS:
Between 1998 and 2003, we enrolled 377 women whose infants had hypertension and 836 matched control women and their infants. Maternal interviews were conducted by nurses, who were blinded, to establish medication use in pregnancy and potential confounders.
What kind of study design is being used?
Case-control
A study is performed to establish whether there is a correlation between BMI and the onset of type 2 diabetes. 1000 non-diabetic participants are recruited between the ages of 30 and 40 and their BMIs noted. They are monitored for 10 years and their diabetic status is recorded.What kind of study design is being used?
Cohort-prospective
Which factor makes it hard for observational studies to establish cause and effect?
cofounding variables
Which of the following is the key difference between experimental and observational research?
experimental research manipulates variables
When conducting a randomised controlled trial, what does the term randomisation mean?
Participants are equally likely to be assigned to the intervention or control groups
A headmaster hears that cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) can increase the performance of under-achieving students. He devises a trial where all pupils sit a progress test: - Those whose score is more than one standard deviation below the mean are given CBT the following term. - Another progress test is then sat by all the pupils. The mean score for the CBT treated students is calculated and found to be much closer to the total mean score.
What is the simplest explanation of this result?
regression to the mean
A headmaster hears that cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) can increase the performance of under-achieving students. What design would be best?
randomised control trial
A headmaster hears that cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) can increase the performance of under-achieving students.Who would you study?
under-achieving students
According to Thomas Kuhn, a paradigm shift changes the way we view the world.What happens to start the process of a paradigm shift?
evidence contradicts current paradigm
You are monitoring levels of the retrovirus, HIV, in the blood of AIDS patients. You perform qPCR using primers specific for HIV sequences. Which of the following steps comes first, when preparing your samples?
add reverse transcriptase
Cystic fibrosis suffers often suffer from bacterial lung infections. In order to determine if they are susceptible to infection by a particular bacterial species, you decide to analyse sputum samples from a sample of patients.Which technique would provide the most information on which bacteria were present in the samples
next generation sequencing
You are performing an intention-to-treat analysis on whether drinking milk can increase bone strength in the elderly. You design a randomised control trial with two groups - those in the intervention group are given milk to drink, whereas those in the control group are asked not to drink milk. Bone strength is measured after 1 month.A participant in the control group thinks that drinking milk must be a good idea and decides to drink it daily.How should their bone strength data be analysed?
as a control data point
During a randomised control trial, allocation concealment should be used to assign participants to control or intervention groups.Why is it used?
to prevent selection bias
You are performing a phase 1 clinical trial on a new drug for type 2 diabetes. The drug is proposed to work by increasing insulin sensitivity.What should you measure?
drug safety
You are performing a phase 1 clinical trial on a new drug for type 2 diabetes. The drug is proposed to work by increasing insulin sensitivity.What is a key feature of such a trial?
the dose is increased sequentially
The BCR-ABL gene is made as a result of a chromosomal translocation (Ph+) and is responsible for 95% of cases of chronic myeloid leukaemia.Which of Koch’s postulates does it satisfy? (4)
- it is found in diseased and not healthy people
- it can be propagated in culture
- it indues the disease when introduced into healthy people
- it can be re-isolatedfrom infected cells and used to cause disease
When deciding whether to fund a particular treatment (or Health Technology), NICE uses the QALY (Quality Adjusted Life Year) to generate a generic measure of its utility.
Time trade-off analysis Comparison of different treatments Measurement of the clinical efficacy of a drug Calculation of a QoL score Calculation of treatment costs
For your project, you are performing a randomised controlled trial to answer the question ‘Does exercise improve learning?’What is your research hypothesis?
exercise improves learning
For your project, you are performing a randomised controlled trial to answer the question ‘Does exercise improve learning?’
How could you measure learning?
-Performance in an IQ test
-Performance in end of year ASK
-Performance in an essay you set
-Memory recall test (i.e. objects on a tray)
-Performance in ASK test you set
performance in ASK test you set
For your project, you are performing a randomised controlled trial to answer the question ‘Does exercise improve learning?’How might you rewrite your research question?
does exercise improve performance in ASK exams
For your project, you are performing a randomised controlled trial to answer the question ‘Does exercise improve learning?’How will you know your study has been successful?
you will have evidence to support or reject your hypothesis
You wish to know which genes are up-regulated by testosterone. You design an experiment where cultured muscle cells are treated with testosterone or a control.Which technique would be the most suitable to gather the required data?
RNA sequencing
You wish to know which genes are up-regulated by muscle cells in response to testosterone. You design an experiment where cultured human muscle cells are treated with testosterone or a control.Before you start, what information do you need to know in order for this technique to be useful?
the sequences of all known human genes
Type 2 diabetes is a complex disease resulting from an interaction between several genetic and environmental factors. Estimates of heritability range from 20-80%.How might you identify genetic variants associated with the disease?
GWAS
