Health Research Methods Final

True or False? Population health focuses on the outcomes and determinants of health in groups of humans.

True

True or False? Questions derived from practice often point toward an unmet demand for needs assessments, program evaluations, and clinical effectiveness studies.

True

When should all ongoing research protocols be re-reviewed?

annually

What type of randomization randomly assigns groups of people to an intervention group and other groups of people to a control group?

block randomization

What type of question forces respondents to select answers that do not truly express their status or opinions?

closed ended questions

Some case series follow patients for days, months, or even years. In this type of study approach, the case series functionally becomes what type of study?

cohort study

What is a good way to evaluate if a new research project is likely to be successfully completed?

Feasible study

Which of the following points toward the selection of key indicators that would provide evidence for the success of the intervention?

PICOT

The major advantage of what type of survey is that costs associated with it are relatively low?

internet based surveys

Which of the following is a key characteristic to watch out for when performing a case series study?

lack of generizability

Participants of what kind of study are recruited based on membership in a well-defined source population?

longitudinal cohort study

A researcher with strong quantitative skills would be required for what type of research?

meta analysis

Enhancing understanding of particular phenomenon is the goal of what type of research?

meta synthesis

Which database is sponsored by the U.S. National Library of Medicine and features only journals that have applied for inclusion and passed through a review process?

midline

On a scatterplot used to illustrate correlation, when the points are not exactly linear but a line for trend can be drawn through them, the correlation is said to be which of the following?

moderate

Which of the following is defined as the percentage of members of a population who die of any condition during a specified time period?

mortality rate

What type of statement provides essential information about research projects to potential research participants so that they can make a thoughtful decision about whether to enroll in a study?

conformed consent

Under which paradigm do researchers have a relativist perspective that considers reality for each individual to be a function of that person's lived experiences?

constructivism

Which of the following would be the first step in conducting a cross-sectional study?

define a source population

True or False? A case study is a research approach that uses a single data source to examine multiple people, groups, or events.

false

True or False? Descriptive epidemiology studies seek to identify the risk factors for various health outcomes or to test the effectiveness of interventions intended to improve health status.

false

True or False? If too many participants are recruited, the whole study will be almost worthless because the sample will not have enough statistical power to answer the study question.

false

True or False? Questions that begin with "who?", "where?", "when?", and "what?" are the main types asked in qualitative research.

false

True or False? Research ethics committees are usually composed of at least five members with similar backgrounds.

false

True or False? The sample population consists of individuals from the study population who are invited to participate in the research project.

false

True or False? The sensitivity is the proportion of people who do not have the disease who test negative with the new test.

false

True or False? The variables used as matching criteria must be considered as exposures during analysis.

false

True or False? When writing independent objectives, the specific aims should be interrelated and dependent on one another.

false

Longitudinal studies use what type of population in which all participants start the study at the same time and no one is permitted to join later?

fixed population

True or False? A goal or objective statement for a clinical or population health research project usually states the exposures, diseases or outcomes, and/or populations that will be the focus of the study.

true

True or False? A strong protocol should be detailed enough that the entire methods section of any paper that will result from the project could be written before data collection begins.

true

True or False? Case definitions are essential for any outbreak investigation no matter which study approach is used to investigate the epidemic.

true

True or False? Coercion could include social pressure or requests from authority figures that make it difficult for an individual not to agree to enroll in a study.

true

True or False? Correlational studies are a useful starting point for generating hypotheses about associations, but they are not the final word on risk factors for a disease.

true

True or False? Cross-sectional studies measure the prevalence of various exposure histories, disease states, and demographic characteristics in one well-defined population at one point in time.

true

True or False? Cross-sectional surveys are used to establish baseline data prior to the initiation of longitudinal studies.

true

True or False? Decisions about the types of questions to ask must include considerations of which statistical tests the researcher wants to run on the collected data.

true

True or False? Direct age adjustment requires knowing the exposure or disease rates by age group in each population.

true

True or False? For a research project to be considered original, it needs to have only one substantive difference from previous work.

true

True or False? If the power estimates for a study are lower than desired, the easiest way to improve the power is to increase the sample size.

true

True or False? In a case-control study, the controls must be similar to the cases in every way except for their disease status.

true

True or False? Only a few out of every hundred calls made by random-digit dialing may yield one person willing to participate in the survey.

true

True or False? Primary studies are often time-consuming because they require the collection of new data from participants.

true

True or False? Proposals for analysis of existing data may be significantly shorter than proposals for new data collection.

true

True or False? Prospective cohort studies examining rates of incidence of disease require a series of questions about both exposure status and disease status.

true

True or False? Recruiting based on exposure status makes retrospective and prospective cohort studies the optimal study approaches for uncommon exposures.

true

True or False? Regardless of which analytic approach is used, the research protocol should include specific plans for promoting compliance and minimizing dropouts.

true

True or False? Some universities require a professor to be listed as the PI on any research project that involves human subjects even if a student is taking the lead role in the conduct of the project.

true

True or False? The Delphi method is a structured decision-making and forecasting process in which participants engaged in completing individual questionnaires.

true

True or False? The ethical principle of distributive justice seeks to ensure that the benefits and burdens of research are equitable.

true

True or False? The goal of recruiting is to maximize the participation rate among members of a sample population so as to yield a study population that is reasonably representative of the source population.

true

True or False? The medical information in patient files is not recorded for research purposes, so records are unlikely to contain all the information that researchers would like to know.

true

True or False? The objective of a systematic review is to synthesize existing knowledge.

true

True or False? The only way to truly understand a study is to read the full text of the article.

true

True or False? When starting a tertiary analysis, the most important decision is the selection of a topic that is narrow enough that all the relevant publications can be acquired.

true

True or False? When the entire 95% confidence interval is less than 1, the odds ratio is statistically significant and the exposure is deemed to be protective in the study population.

true

Which of the following is defined as the assurance that individuals get to choose what information they reveal about themselves?

privacy

What type of sampling is usually the preferred option for producing a sample population that is similar to the source population as a whole?

probability based sampling

What type of study method is used for many of the largest studies conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention?

repeated cross sectional survey

What research characteristic requires a detailed set of explanations about how participants were sampled?

reproducibility

The timeline for what type of study might be very short if an entire data file and the relevant supporting documentation can be downloaded from a website?

secondary study

True or False? The five steps of the research process can vary according to the goal of the research project or according to what methods are used.

False

True or False? The goal of concept mapping is to create a long list of possible research topics.

False

The standard expectation is that a study's analyses should have a power of what value or greater?

80%

At what point should the researcher identify three or more specific objectives that stem from the main study goal?

After finalizing the overarching study goal

What is the fourth step in the research process?

Analyze data

What type of research evaluates the best ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat adverse health issues that affect individuals and families?

Clinical research

Which of the following is a major function of an ethics review board?

Conduct continuing review of long-term research projects

Critical reading involves asking a series of questions about what aspect of a study in order to ascertain how well a particular study was designed, conducted, interpreted, and reported and to assess how likely it is that the resulting paper presents the truth about a particular research question in a particular population at a particular place and time?

Internal validity

What commonly used type of cross-sectional study asks participants about their knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, practices, and behaviors?

KAP survey

Which of the following, related to the candidate question, will assist the researcher in determining what is already known about the topic and what new information a new study could contribute?

Literature review

What database, developed by the U.S. National Library of Medicine, can be helpful for identifying the full extent of a research area and for narrowing the scope of a research area?

MeSH

For continuous variables and other variables with responses that can be plotted on a number line, which of the following is used to calculate the correlation?

Pearson correlation coefficient

Demography is often used as a tool in what type of research?

Population health research

Which of the following is sketched out using boxes and arrows that illustrate the various relationships that will be evaluated during the study?

conceptual framework

Which of the following is a statistical estimate of how close to the population value a sample of a particular size is expected to be?

confidence interval

What type of studies seek to recruit a study population that is representative of a well-defined larger population?

cross sectional studies

Which of the following is the first step when designing an experimental study?

decide on the intervention and eligibility criteria

What type of research might collect quantitative data first and then use a qualitative study to help interpret the results?

explanatory

Which of the following is usually required when an intervention will be tested in individuals or a community, data will be collected through interaction with individuals, or identifiable private information will be collected?

full review of the research proposal

Because many peer-reviewed journals are not included in the databases, especially journals in languages other than English, which search engine may be helpful for identifying additional relevant abstracts?

google scholar

Recording responses to open-ended questions verbatim without rephrasing, paraphrasing, "correcting," or interpreting them is an example of what type of characteristic of well-trained interviewers?

honest

Which of the following tasks would need to be performed by the researcher if existing data is going to be analyzed?

identify an important data source and supporting materials

What type of matching approach is common in genetic studies that link each case to a genetic sibling or another close genetic relative for analysis?

matched pairs matching

What type of research must be carefully organized by theme, methodology, chronology, or another guiding principle?

narrative review

Researchers attempting to generate a random sample from the source population need to avoid what type of bias that could occur if each individual in the source population does not have an equal chance of being selected for the sample population?

nonrandom sampling bias

Which of the following is the measure of association that readers will expect to be reported for a case-control study?

odds ratio

Secondary data collection might become labor intensive if which of the following have to be retrieved, read, coded, and entered into a database?

old hospital charts

Which of the following is the highest cost associated with interviews?

personnel

Which approach to gather and interpret qualitative data seeks to understand how participants understand, interpret, and find meaning in their own life experiences and feelings?

phenomenology

Which of the following examines where a new test is good at predicting the presence of disease?

positive likelihood ratio test

Factors that might influence the relationships between key exposures and outcomes are referred to as which of the following?

potential confounders

What type of study design should be used to investigate an exposure that is relatively uncommon but a source of exposed individuals is available?

prospective cohort

For what type of questions must decisions be made about how many entries to include on a scale and whether there will be a neutral option?

ranked questions

A Gantt chart can be very helpful for visually displaying which of the following?

research timeline

Which of the following should always be the top priority when designing and implementing an experimental study?

safety

Before conducting a statistical analysis of aggregate data, the data from each population must be entered into which of the following?

spreadsheet

What type of table is used in case-control studies to compare two dichotomous (yes/no) variables?

two by two table

What type of error occurs when a study population yields a significant statistical test result even though a significant difference or association does not actually exist in the source population?

type 1 error

Providing a small gift as a token of goodwill before an individual is asked to participate in a study is an example of what?

understood consent