research exam 3
T/F: an abstract for a published paper is much longer than one for a dissertation, usually between 200-250 words
false
T/F: the independent variable in an analysis is the outcome
false
according to the text, the proposal should be written in
future tense
which of the following would be included in a grant proposal but not in a thesis proposal
curriculum vitae of the author
a variable in an epidemiological study that is tested for its relationship with the outcome of interest
exposure
"to what populations, settings, treatment variables, and measurement variables can this effect be generalized?" might most approximately be asked in relation to
external validity
measurements are frequently made and then averaged across several participants. to what degree of precision should the average be reported in a research paper
to the precision with which it was measured
T/F: tables and figures should be adapted from their paper version for use during a visual presentation. paper versions typically contain too much information and are too small to read during visual presentations
true
T/F: the most frequent errors in oral research presentations are spending too much time on the methods and presenting the results poorly
true
of the surveys frequently used for measuring physical activity in epidemiological research, the shortest (one to four items) is
global questionnaire
individuals performing well merely because they are being observed are considered to be under the influence of the
hawthorne effect
leading cause of death in the us
heart disease
which of the following should be included int he discussion section of a research report
implications of the results
interviewers may become more skilled with practice, which could cause differences between the results of participants interviewed early in the study and those of participants interviewed later. this threat to internal validity is known as
instrumentation
in the alternative format for a thesis or dissertation, the body
is a paper in research journal format
ethics and physical activity intervention
it is unethical to conduct true experimental research on health behaviors such as physical activity
generally speaking, an oral presentation at a conference has
less detail than a poster
oral vs poster presentations
oral- author speaks before a group of colleagues at a conference following format (intro, statement of problem, method, results, discussion, questions) poster- presenters place summaries of research on wall/stands and stand by work while people walk around and read/discuss the info
prevalence of disease differs from incidence of disease in that prevalence refers to the number of
people who presently have a disease, whereas incidence relates to new ones
determinants of disease are often called
risk factors
in the journal format for theses and dissertations, the appendixes contain
an extended review of literature
a type of study that matches individuals with and without disease on factors such as age and ethnicity is the
case control study
a study design uses, for example, two groups of people representing a disease-free population who are then classified as exercisers and nonexercisers, after a period of time, the mortality rates of each group are compared. this design is called
cohort study
a baseline in single subject research
establishes initial rates of behavior before an intervention
a double blind study is one in which
neither the researcher nor the participants know which participants receive the experimental treatment
observational vs experimental research
observational considers how existing differences affect disease outcomes whereas experimental is unethical
threats to internal validity
-history: events occurring during the experiment that are not part of the treatment -maturation: processes within the participants that operate as result of time passing -testing: the effects of one test on subsequent administrations of the same test -instrumentation: changes in instrument calibration, including lack of agreement within and between observers -statistical regression: the fact that groups selected based on extreme scores are not as extreme on subsequent testing -selection bias: choosing comparison groups in a nonrandom manner -experimental mortality: loss of participants from comparison groups for nonrandom reasons -selection-maturation interaction: the passage of time affecting one group but not the other in nonequivalent group designs -expectancy: experimenters' or testers' anticipating that certain participants will perform better
threats to external validity
-reactive or interactive effects of testing: the pretest may make the participant more aware of or sensitive to the upcoming treatment. as a result, the treatment is not as effective without the pretest. -interaction of selection bias and the experimental treatment: when a group is selected on some characteristic, the treatment may work only on groups possessing that characteristic -reactive effects of experimental arrangements: treatments are effective in constrained situations may not be effective in less constrained settings -multiple-treatment interference: when participants receive more than one treatment, the effects of previous treatments may influence subsequent ones
which of the following terms is used in connection with intensity of exercise and refers to the ratio of metabolic rate during exercise to metabolic rate while resting
MET
components of grant proposal
an abstract of the proposed project, a statement of the problem and its relevance, the methodology to be followed, a time frame, a budget, and the curricula vitae of the investigators
a researcher finds that the control group performs above its usual performance when compared with experimental group. this effect is named he
avis effect
early epidemiological studies
between the 40s and 60s, important to the development of the field of physical activity epidemiology bc first to develop methods to measure physical activity and first to conduct study that links physical activity to life threatening diseases
relative risk vs odds ratio
both a measure of association of the exposure-disease relationship, typically used in cohort studies. relative risk- calculated as the ratio of referent category to different exposure levels odds ratio- analysis of case control data contrasts the exposure history of the cases to that of the controls. estimate of the relative risk that would have been calc
single vs double blinded studies
both a method to controlling threat to internal validity single blind- participant does not know whether he/she is receiving experimental or control treatment double blind- neither participant nor experimenter knows which treatment the participant is receiving
additional factors that can affect the relationship between physical activity and blood cholesterol, such as smoking, body fat, and so on, are called
confounding factors
in the journal format for thesis and dissertation, the primary part
contains materials that are typically required by the institution and is left off when submitting the study for publication
good vs bad tables/figures
data should be presented easily, comparisons made should be significant, info easy to understand and brief, columns and rows order should make sense, round decimals to two digits, pay attention to summaries and rows of columns
epidemiologic study designs
descriptive- relationship of basic characteristics such as age/sex/race to various disease states cross sectional- most frequent, known risk factors for disease used as end point rather than disease itself ecological- use existing data sources for both exposure and disease outcomes to compare and contrast rates of disease by specific characteristics of an entire population analytic designs- case control and cohort studies, test specific hypotheses regarding casual links between various exposures and mortality and incidence outcomes using observational methods
the internal validity of an experimental design is concerned with what question
did the independent variable really produce a change in the dependent variable
components of epidemiological research
distribution: frequency (prevalence, incidence, and mortality rate) and patterns (person, place, and time) determinants: defined characteristics (associated with change in health) application: translation (knowledge to practice)
in a research study in which the treatment involved quite intense physical training, 40% of the participants in the treatment group dropped out as compared with the 5% of the control group. this threat to internal validity is called
experimental mortality
relationship between internal and external validity
gaining internal validity means controlling all variables to eliminate rival hypotheses, which places the external validity of the findings in jeopardy bc in ecologically valid settings, not everything is controlled/operated the same way as in a controlled lab context
the major weakness of epidemiological studies is
inability to experimentally establish cause and effect
harmful effects of low physical activity
increased risk heart disease and overall mortality
purpose of literature review
indicate why you conducted the research
in the results section of a research report, the author should include
information contained in tables and information concerning statistical significance and meaningfulness
different chapter/section formats for proposals
journal format- consists of introduction and methods section, appropriate tables, figures, and appendixes four section thesis- consists of first two sections five section thesis- proposal consists of first three sections
a table of descriptive data should include which information for each group
mean, standard deviation, and number
how is intensity typically assessed
metabolic equivalent (MET) in absolute terms- ratio of the activity metabolic rate to the resting metabolic rate, Compendium of Physical Activities
it is reasonable to expect volunteer participants to be similar in nature to
other volunteers from similar populations
types of study designs (ch18)
preexperimental- control few of the sources of invalidity and doesnt have random assignments of participants to group; one shot study, one group pretest-posttest design, and static group comparison true experimental design- groups are randomly formed and control most sources of invalidity quasi-experimental- experimenter tries to fit the design to real world settings while still controlling as many of the threats to internal validity as possible
the lengths and contents of abstracts differ according to their intended use. the important parts of an abstract for a published research paper include the
problem, methods, result, discussion
when past vs present tense should be used in writing the proposal
proposal should be written in future tense, pilot studies that have been completed should be in the past tense
the one characteristic of true experimental designs that preexperimental and quasi-experimental designs do not have is
random assignment to groups
benefits of randomization
randomization can be used to control threats to internal validity- controls history up to the point of the experiment, maturation bc passage of time equivalent, statistical regression/ selection biases/ selection maturation interaction bc they occur only when groups aren't randomly formed
which of the following should not be included in the results section of a research report
raw data
different forms of bias
recall bias- differences in recall accuracy between groups. ex: people who have just been diagnosed with a major disease that is often life threatening may recall exposures differently selection bias- differences in the characteristics of subjects entering and not entering a study. ex: exposure histories of control group differ importantly from unknowable exposure of cohort from which cases arose observer bias- interviewers collect exposure info but interviewers are not blind to disease status of participants bias from misclassification- misclassification of physical activity exposure levels arise from measurement errors introduced when exposures are measured
in comparison to the traditional chapter format, the body of a dissertation using the journal format is always
shorter
which of the following is not included in the proposal
tables of results
the five chapter format for theses and dissertations differs from the four chapter model in that a separate chapter is devoted to
the literature review
which sections of a proposal draw the most questions
the methods section
which of the following statements about constructing tables is not true
the table should include whatever test of significance was used
T/F: the results section is the most important section because it presents the studys findings
true
uses of epidemiology
use naturally occurring differences in population to observe and understand effects on specific disease outcomes, obtain quantitative understanding of health risks of behavioral risk factors
