Exploratory Research

Question 1

What are the uses of exploratory research (2)?

Answer 1

1. Systemic Investigation of relationships among two or more variables (they predict the effect of 1 variable on another and test relationships that are supported by clinical theory)
2. Common use in healthcare to investigate the relationship between exposure and disease status.

Question 2

What is the characteristic of exploratory research?

Answer 2

longitudinal, cross-sectional, prospective and retrospective

Question 3

What are the 2 limitations to prospective data?

Answer 3

Time consuming and risk for attrition

Question 4

How is retrospective data often obtained?

Answer 4

EMR, databases, surveys

Question 5

What are the 2 major limitations of retrospective data?

Answer 5

Unable to control variable and unable to control the quality of the data

Question 6

What is the major advantage of longitudinal data?

Answer 6

researchers are able to describe patterns

Question 7

what are major disadvantages to longitudinal data?

Answer 7

huge commitment and attrition is easy to see.

Question 8

What are the major advantages of cross-sectional data?

Answer 8

much more efficient design and not threatened by testing effects

Question 9

What is the major disadvantage of cross-sectional data?

Answer 9

can be difficult to discern if results are effects of age or passing of time vs effects of extraneous sampling variables.

Question 10

What is a retrospective longitudinal design?

Answer 10

Data over a period of time that has already been collected.

Question 11

What is prospective longitudinal design?

Answer 11

follow subjects in real time over period of time.

Question 12

What is retrospective cross-sectional design?

Answer 12

point in past over previous data

Question 13

A cohort study is when researchers select:

Answer 13

subjects without the outcome of interest and monitor if outcome develops over time.

Question 14

Cohort studies are typically prospective or retrospective?

Answer 14

prospective

Question 15

what are the 2 major advantages of cohort studies?

Answer 15

1. able to identify the temporal sequence between exposure to risk factors and the development of outcome
2. more than 1 disorder can be evaluated

Question 16

What are the 2 major disadvantages of cohort studies?

Answer 16

1. less useful for rare disorders
2. prone to attrition

Question 17

Case control studies aim to determine if:

Answer 17

frequency of exposure to certain variable varies between those with and without the disease

Question 18

case controls are prospective or retrospective?

Answer 18

retrospective

Question 19

What are the 3 major advantages of case-control designs

Answer 19

• Helpful for determining prognosis-centered research questions
• easy to collect data
• especially helpful for analyzing disorders with long latency periods and rare disorders

Question 20

What are the 2 major disadvantages of case-control designs?

Answer 20

Difficult to gauge temporal relationships
Bias (risk for misclassification and observation bias)

Question 21

Epidemiology is:

Answer 21

Study of the distribution and determinants of health related states and events in specified populations.

Question 22

Epidemiology is:

Answer 22

Study of the distribution and determinants of health related states and events in specified populations.

Question 23

What are the 5 W’s of descriptive epidemiologic studies?

Answer 23

who
what
when
where
why

Question 24

With descriptive epidemiologic studies, we examine person, place and time. What questions do we ask regarding each of those 3 subcategories?

Answer 24

person - who is experiencing the disorder?
place - where is the frequency of the disorder highest or lowest?
time - when does the disorder occur most or less frequently?

Question 25

Incidence represents

Answer 25

estimate of RISK of developing the disease.

Question 26

Incidence is helpful in

Answer 26

identifying groups with higher disease rates.

Question 27

What are the two types of incidences?

Answer 27

cumulative incidence and incidence rate

Question 28

how can i tell the difference between cumulative incidence and incidence rate?

Answer 28

cumalative incidence = percentage incidence rate = decimal or fraction

Question 29

Cumulative incidence equation is:

Answer 29

CI = number of new cases during a given time period/ total population at risk

Question 30

The incidence rate equation is:

Answer 30

IR = number of new cases during a given time period/ (number of new case during a given time period x years of observation)

Question 31

In a study of diabetics, 100 - 189 diabetic men died during the 10 year follow up period. The risk of death for men with diabetes in this study = a CI of 52.9%. Interpret this data.

Answer 31

This study found that there was 52.9 % rate of mortality within 10 years in men diagnosed with diabetes.

Question 32

In the diabetic study, 50 men died at 5 years and the other 50 died at 10 years. The IR = .113. Interpret this statistic.

Answer 32

This study found that there was an incidence rate of .133 deaths per person per year for diabetic men or This study found that there was an incidence rate of 13.3 deaths per 100 persons per year.

Question 33

What is the equation for prevalence?

Answer 33

Prevalence = number of existing cases of a disease at a given point or a duration of time/ total population at risk

Question 34

With what type of data would you use point prevalence?

Answer 34

cross sectional data

Question 35

with what type of data would you use period prevalence?

Answer 35

longitudinal

Question 36

With a national concern on obesity, the national health interview survey in 2000 found that the number adults with self reported obesity was 7,058 out of a sample of 32, 375. The prevalence of obesity is expressed as: 21.8%. Interpret the result.

Answer 36

There is a 22% probability that any randomly selected individual from this population would be obese

Question 37

Data obtained from a random sample of 973 newspaper employees found that the number of individuals categorized as having upper limb musculoskeletal pain after 1 year was 395. 100 reported that they already had started experiencing UE pain prior to the start of data collection. The estimate of the prevalence of upper limb musculoskeletal complaints in this population during a 1 year period is 50.8%. Interpret the results.

Answer 37

There is a 51% probability that any randomly selected individual from this population would have upper limb musculoskeletal complaints.

Question 38

What are the 2 major descriptive epidemiologic factors?

Answer 38

incidence and prevalence

Question 39

What is the purpose of exploratory epidemiologic studies?

Answer 39

1. assess the relationship between specific exposures and disease status. 2. aims to determine the presence and strength of the associations as well as identify risk factors 3. can help identify the likelihood of both diagnosis and prognosis of the disease.

Question 40

What is the most common methodology used for exploratory research studies?

Answer 40

case control and cohort studies

Question 41

Relative Risk is the:

Answer 41

likelihood that exposure will lead to development of disease or disease state

Question 42

what is the equation for relative risk?

Answer 42

incidence of disease among the exposed subjects/ incidence of disease among the unexposed subjects

Question 43

Relative risk is used with which type of studies?

Answer 43

cohort studies

Question 44

RR is above 1:

Answer 44

increase my risk of disease

Question 45

RR below 1:

Answer 45

decreases my risk of disease

Question 46

RR at 1 =

Answer 46

no excess risk

Question 47

Odds ratio =

Answer 47

likelihood that exposure will lead to development of disease or disease state

Question 48

odds ratio is calculated with which type of data?

Answer 48

case controls studies.