Understanding Research:

An Overview for Health Professionals

Week 2: Study Design

Faculty: Abbey Alkon, RN PNP PhD, Professor Teaching Assistant: Jarmin Yeh, PhD Student UCSF School of Nursing

Study Designs

Study Designs
o Cohort Studies
Prospective or retrospective Experimental
- Quasi-experimental

o Cross-Sectional Studies o Case-Control studies

Over view of Study Designs

Time Frame
Present Present & Future

Crosssectional
X

Casecontrol
X

Prospective Cohort
X X

Historical Cohort

Past
Past & Present

X
X

X
X

Analysis
Descriptive Analytic
X X X X X X X

Whats The Study Design?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/darinrmcclure/9059210910/

How do you know what study design is appr opriate?

Key Questions:
o Will there be an intervention? o What types of comparisons are made? o What is the time frame of the study? o How many times will data be collected? o What is the research question?

Will there be an inter vention?

Study Design Cohort Cross-sectional Case-control Experimental

Intervention No No No Yes

Alkon @ 2013

W hat is the time frame of the study?

Study Design Cohort Cross-sectional Case-control Experimental

Time Frame Prospective or retrospective One point in time Retrospective Prospective

How many times will data be collected?

Study Design Cohort Cross-sectional Case-control Experimental Data collection times Repeated measures over time One time Usually one time Repeated measures over time

W hat is the research question?

Study Design Descriptive Cohort Incidence CrossPrevalence, sectional Associations Case-control None Analytic Association, predictors No causation Identify predictors; Causation

Experimental Treatment effect

Question
Morbidity reports received by a county health department indicated that a number of young women who developed viral hepatitis after no known exposure to the disease had their ears pierced during the preceding months. To study the association between ear piercing and hepatitis, young women with viral hepatitis and a group of young women of similar age who attended a family planning clinic and did not have viral hepatitis were queried about recent ear piercing. It was found that 7 of the 48 women with hepatitis, but only 1 of the 100 women attending the family planning clinic, had had their ears pierced within the preceding 7 months. What type of study design is this and why?

Case-Control Study
1. Will there be an intervention? No 2. What comparisons are made? Those with and without the diagnosis of hepatitis 3. What is the time frame? Retrospective 4. How many times will data be collected? Once 5. What is the research question? Is there an association between ear piercing and hepatitis in young women?

Question - Answer
Diagnosis: viral hepatitis in young women Cases: young women with viral hepatitis Controls: young women matched by age with no diagnosis of viral hepatitis Interviews/ Surveys identify exposure ear piercing during the preceding months Setting: Family planning clinic Results: 7 of the 48 women with hepatitis, but only 1 of the 100 women attending the family planning clinic, had had their ears pierced within the preceding 7 months.