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1. Ch 1
❖ Define Health research o is the process of systematically investigating a single well-
defined aspect of physical, mental, or social well-being.
❖ Examples of Research Goals o Identifying and classifying new health problems o
Determining risk factors for disease o Developing and testing new interventions for
preventing or treating illness o Evaluating the impact of health policies on health outcomes o
Synthesizing existing knowledge so that it can be applied by others
❖ Examples of Researcher Benefits o Acquiring new skills o Satisfying personal curiosity o
Fulfilling degree or work requirements o Becoming a published author o Contributing to
individual or population health
❖ The steps of any population health research project are: o Identify question study o
Select study approach o Design study and data collect o Analyze data o Report findings
❖ Examples of Laboratory Research
o Compare tests of air quality in several metropolitan areas o Analyze the biochemical
composition of selected foods o Identify biological mechanisms for the emergence of drug-
resistant strain bacteria o Identify genes that might be linked to an increased risk of breast
cancer o Develop a new vaccine ABRAR & THAMER.M88
❖ Examples of Population Research
o Compare rates -of acute lung diseases in several metropolitan areas and see whether the
rates of disease are correlated with local air quality o Use a food frequency questionnaire to
examine dietary behaviors in a selected population group o Identify the risk factors for
acquiring a drug-resistant bacterial infection o Determine whether survival following a
breast cancer diagnosis is linked to the presence of certain genes o Conduct a vaccine trial
❖ Mention any two of the benefits of health research to society.
o Identification of health concerns and/or methods for promoting health and preventing
disease and disability o Acquisition of evidence for improving clinical and public health
practices and policies o Expansion of the scientific literature that sets the foundation for
future research, policies, and practices
❖ Mention any two of the benefits of health research to personal.
o Attainment of new knowledge by systematically investigating a topic o Development
and/or refinement of a new skill set (and possible fulfillment of the requirements of an
educational program or employer) o Satisfaction of exploring an area of interest and seeing
a project through to completion
ch2
❖ Easy question ❖ Examples of Types of Populations o Australian children younger than 5
years old o Women living in rural Ontario o Audit with diabetes o Teachers with at least10
years of classroom experience o Individuals newly diagnosed with influenza at St. Mary's
Hospital in Newcastle o Nongovernmental organizations working on issues related to

2. HIV/AIDS in Uganda ❖ Examples of Types of Diseases o Injuries o communicable/ Infectious
Diseases o Noncommunicable/ Chronic Diseases o Neuropsychiatric Disorders ABRAR &
THAMER.M88 ❖ Examples of Types of Exposures o Socioeconomic status • Income • Wealth
• education level o Health related Behaviors • Dietary practices • exercise habits • alcohol
use o Health statue • Nutritional status • Genetics • stress o Environmental exposures •
Drinking water • Pollution • radiation ❖ Give two examples of study questions using the
[exposure] and [disease/outcome] in[population] research topic formula o Is income
[exposure] related to the risk of tuberculosis infection [disease/outcome] in Australian
children younger than 5 years old [population]? o Are natural disasters [exposure] related to
the risk of stroke [disease/outcome] in adults with diabetes [population]? o Are exercise
habits [exposure] related to the risk of bone fractures [disease] in adults with diabetes
[population]? o Is reproductive history [exposure] related to the risk of stroke [disease]
among women living in rural Ontario [population]? o Is household wealth [exposure] related
to the risk of hospitalization for asthma [disease] in Australian children younger than 5 years
old [population]?
Ch3
❖ Define Abstract: paragraph-length summary of an article, chapter, or book ❖ Health
Databases Abstract Science o CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health) o
Embase o ISI Web of Science o MEDLINE o PsycINFO o PubMed (MEDLINE plus others) o
Google Scholar ❖ Steps for Reading Articles o Re-read the abstract. o Look carefully at the
tables and figures for important results. o Read the entire text of the article o Review of the
reference lists for related papers. ❖ Originality requires one substantive difference from
previous work: o a new exposure of interest o a new disease of interest o a new source
population o a new time period under study o a new perspective on a field of exploration
Ch4
o Primary study: The data will be collected from individuals OR collect and analyze new
information o Secondary study: An existing Data set will analyzed, or data ·extracted, from
existing records will be statistically analyzed. OR analyze existing data o Tertiary study: The
existing literature will be reviewed OR review and synthesize the literature ❖ Examples of
Study Goals o To describe the incidence or prevalence of a particular exposure or disease in
one well-defined population o To assess the perceived health-related needs of a community
o To compare the levels of exposure or disease in two or more populations o To identify
possible risk factors fora particular disease in a population o To test the effectiveness of a
new diagnostic or assessment method or of a new therapy or treatment o To evaluate
whether an intervention shown to be successful in one population is equally successfully in a
second population o To examine the impact of a pogrom or policy o To synthesize or
integrate existing knowledge ❖ The three specific objectives for this study maybe: o To
measure the prevalence of high blood lead levels in a random sample of kindergarten
students, in southeast Michigan o To determine whether children in that sample with high
blood lead levels have lower scores on academic tests than children with lower blood lead
levels o To estimate the total impact of high blood lead levels on kindergarten performance
in southeast Michigan by applying the rates in the sample population to the total population
of the region ABRAR & THAMER.M88 ❖

3. ch5
❖ Additional Technical Support o Laboratory technicians o Statistical consultants o
Librarians o Technical editor ❖ Other potential coauthors: o An expert on the research topic
or the study population o An expert on the study design or other methods being used for the
research o A statistician o Other key contributors who are significantly involved in the design
and conduct of the study and in the editing and polishing of the manuscript ❖ Lead
researcher = first author = the researcher who will do the majority of the work ❖ Senior
researcher = last author = an experienced researcher who guides the work of a newer
investigator ❖ Each coauthor must have met all three of the following conditions: o
Substantial contributions to conception and design and/or acquisition of data and/or
analysis and interpretation of data o Drafting the article and/or revising it critically for
important intellectual content o Final approval of the version to be published ❖ List any four
core collaborators in the support team? o A supervisor or other experienced researcher who
Serves as a mentor and advisor during the research process o An expert on the research
topic ,or the study population . o An expert on. the study design or other methods being
used for the research o A statistician
Ch6
❖ Identify 5 study approaches and describe the goal for each approach. OR there are many
good studies designs for population mention any four of studies approaches o Review/meta-
analysis: Synthesize existing knowledge o Correlational (ecological) study: Compare average
levels of exposure and disease in several populations o Case series: Describe a group of
individuals with a disease o Cross-sectional survey: Describe exposure and/or disease status
in a population o Case-control study: Compare exposure histories in people with disease
(cases) and people without diseases (controls) o Cohort study: Compare rates of new
(incident) disease in people with different exposure histories or follow a population forward
in time to look for incident diseases o Experimental study: Compare outcome in participants
assigned to an intervention or control group o Qualitative study: Seek to understand how
individuals and communities perceive and make sense of the world and their experiences
Ch7
❖ List and describe the three types of review articles. o Narrative reviews: tell a story about
a topic by summarizing, for example, critical clinical aspects of a disease, present
epidemiological profile for a disease, or propose a new theory. o Systematic reviews: use a
fixed method to select relevant articles and crafts a search strategy that identifies all the
articles ever published on the narrow, well-defined area covered by the review. o Meta-
analysis: combines the results of several high-quality articles that used similar methods to
collect and analyze data into one summary statistic ❖ Steps of review article o An extensive
search of the literature o Extraction of key information from relevant articles o Clear and
concise presentation of this information ❖ The steps of a meta-analysis are to: OR List of
steps of meta-analysis o Conduct a systematic review o Assess the quality and comparability
of each eligible study o Extract statistical results from each study that meets all inclusion
criteria o Combine these statistical results into one summary statistic

4. Ch8
❖ Use linear regression models when the goal is to: o compare more than two variables o
understand the relationship between two variables while controlling or adjusting for the
effects of other variables ❖ The correlational (ecological, aggregate) study o uses population
level data to examine the relationship between exposure rates and disease rates
Ch9
❖ Uses of Case Series OR mention any two use case series study? o Describing the
characteristics of and similarities among a group of individuals with the same signs and/or
symptoms of disease o Identifying new syndromes and refining case definitions. o Clarifying
typical disease progression o Developing hypotheses for future research ❖ What is the
difference between case report and case series? o case report: describes one patient. o case
series: describes two or more patients who have the same disease condition or who have
undergone the same procedure
Ch10
❖ step cross sectional o Define a source population o Develop a strategy for recruiting a
representative sample o Decide on the methods to be used for data collection ❖ Cross-
sectional surveys are used to: o Describe communities o Evaluating programs o Establishing
baseline data prior to initiating longitudinal studies o Assessing population needs
Ch11
❖ Describe the three steps used for identifying cases and controls for a case-control study. o
identify an appropriate and accessible source of individuals with the disease of interest. o
develop a working case definition that specifies the characteristics that must be either
present or absent for a person to be considered a case. o select an appropriate source of
controls. ❖ There are three basic options for matching cases and controls: OR Write down
any two of the basic options for matching cases and controls? o no matching o frequency
(group) matching o matched-pairs (individual) matching ❖ define Recall bias o occurs when
cases and controls systematically have different memories of the past. ❖ Define Odds ratio
(OR) o the ratio of the odds of exposure in cases to the odds of exposure in controls
Ch12
❖ cohort study o follows participants through time to calculate the rate at which new
(incident) disease occurs and to identify risk factors for the disease ❖ Cohort studies take
many forms. For simplicity, consider three main categories: OR Types of Cohort Studies o
Retrospective cohort: use baseline information collected at some point in the past and
follow the cohort to another point in the past or to the present o Prospective cohort : collect
baseline data about exposures and outcomes in the present and follow the cohort to some
point in the future o Longitudinal cohort: recruit participants based on their membership in
a well-defined source population, then follow them forward in time ❖ Examples of
populations for a longitudinal study: o All the residents of one town o A representative
sample of members of one professional organization o A representative group of students
recruited from the same university ❖ Compare o In a longitudinal study with a fixed

5. population, all participants start the study at the same time and no one is allowed to join
later o In a study with a dynamic population, participants are recruited using rolling
admission and replacement of dropouts ❖ Define Excess risk = attributable risk (AR) o the
absolute difference in the incidence rate between the exposed population and the
unexposed population
Ch13
❖ define experimental study o assigns participants to intervention and control groups in
order to examine whether an intervention causes an intended outcome ❖ define
Hawthorne effect: o participants in a study may change their behavior for the better simply
because they know they are being observed ❖ A variety of approaches can be used to
randomly allocate participants to an active intervention group or a control group, such as: o
Simple randomization: Each individual is randomized to one treatment group o Block
randomization : Group of individuals are randomized to a treatment o Stratified
randomization: individuals are grouped into strata and then randomized to one treatment
group ❖ Ethical Principles o Equipoise: experimental research should be conducted only
when there is genuine uncertainty about which treatment will work better o Distributive
justice: infers that the source population must be an appropriate and non-exploitative one o
Beneficence (do good) and nonmaleficence (do not harm): researchers must balance the
likely benefits and risks of the study ❖ Experimental studies use many of the same measures
of association that cohort studies do: o Relative rates (RRs) o Attributable risks (ARs, AR%s) o
Measures of survival ❖ Compare o Treatment-received approach: limit analysis to the
participants who were fully compliant with their assigned intervention o Treatment-assigned
approach (intention-to-treat approach): includes all participants even if they were not fully
compliant with their assigned intervention ❖ What is the simple random sampling? o uses a
coin toss1 a random number generator, or some other simple mechanism to assign each
individual to one of the groups OR Each individual is randomized to one treatment group
Ch14
❖ Examples of Qualitative Study Methods o Phenomenology: seeks to understand how
participants understand, interpret, and find meaning in their own unique life experiences
and feelings o Grounded theory: an inductive reasoning process that uses observations to
develop general theories that explain human behavior o Ethnography: aims to develop an
insider’s view (an emic perspective) of how members of a particular cultural group see their
world ❖ A similar process can be used as a component of other forms of evaluative
research, such as: o Needs assessment. o Cost-effectiveness analysis o Health services
research ❖ Examples of Techniques - In-depth and semi-structured interviews of individuals
use open-ended questions to explore viewpoints. - Focus groups – Interviews
Ch15
❖ Money and materials are not the only resources to consider: o Access to individuals who
are willing to contribute their time, expertise, and/or connections o Access to potential
study participants or data sets o Access to laboratory, office, or meeting space o Access to
equipment like copying machines ❖ Some projects are enhanced by: o Internal grants from
a school or employer o External grants from private foundations, corporations, government
agencies, or other source ❖ Define proposal is usually a request for funding or for

6. supervisory approval. ❖ Define protocol is a detailed handbook describing all the actions
that will be taken during the implementation of the study. ❖ Ideally, a protocol should: o
Describe all the procedures that will be used for data collection and analysis o Provide
details about the responsibilities of each member of the research team o List the deadlines
for completion of all the steps in the research process o Describe the mechanism for
updating any part of the research plan, should the need arise after approval of the initial
protocol
Ch30
❖ Plagiarism occurs when someone’s wording, thinking, or creative output is repeated in a
new document without attribution, such as: o Copying the exact words of another person
without using quotation marks and providing a full citation o Paraphrasing a unique theory
or observation without providing a citation o Using an image without permission and an
acknowledgment are all forms of plagiarism ❖ Define Plagiarism is o a major violation of
scholarly integrity, and it can have a damaging long-term impact on a professional career. ❖
Citations typically appear in two formats: OR what are the two types citation styles? o As in-
text citations where the sources of information are briefly identified in the text. o In a
reference list at the end of the document that provides full bibliographic information for
each source.
Ch31
methods used to select participants cannot be changed. Participants cannot be asked a
question that was not included in the questionnaire. These flaws are normal and expected.
What authors can do is: o Fully explains the actual methods used. o Provides all the
appropriate analyses. o Includes a helpful set of references that support the results. o
Presents polished prose. o Honestly identifies the limitations of the study and explains what
was done to address them.
Ch16
❖ Types of Probability Sampling o Simple random sampling: each person has an equal
change of being selected o Stratified sampling: person random sample selected from each of
several strata o Systematic sampling: after random start point every nth person is selected o
Cluster sampling: an area is divided into geographic clusters and some clusters are selected
for inclusion ❖ four different types of populations must be considered when preparing to
collect data: o The results of the study should be applicable to the target population o The
source population is a well-defined subset of individuals from the target population o The
sample population is the individuals from the source population who are asked to
participate o The study population is the members of the sample population who actually
participate in the study
Ch17
❖ Sometimes a sample population does not capture the true experience of the population:
o Type 1 errors (α) occur when a study population yields a significant statistical test result
when one does not exist in the source population. o Type 2 errors (β) occur when a
statistical test of data from the study population finds no significant result when one actually
exists in the source population ❖ Power Estimation o work backward from the number of

7. participants likely to be recruited to see whether that sample size provides adequate
statistical power for the study design. ❖ Statistical power o is the ability of a statistical test
to detect significant differences in a population when differences really do exist.
Ch18
questionnaire is a tool for systematically gathering information from study participants. ❖
Questionnaire Design Plan • Identify general question categories • Select specific question
topics • Choose question and answer type • Check wording • Choose order • Format layout
• Pre test • Revise • Use ❖ compare o Close-ended questions allow a limited number of
possible answers o Open-ended questions allow participants to give free response answers
❖ : List any two advantages and limitations of open-ended questions o Advantages: ▪ Explain
their selection and qualify their responses. ▪ Give multiple answers ▪ Provide responses not
anticipated by the researcher. o Limitations ▪ Take longer to ask and to answer. ▪ May result
in irrelevant answers. ▪ Recording for statistical analysis is often difficult ❖ Close-ended
questions come in a variety of formats, including: o Date and time variables o Numeric
variables o Categorical variables o Paired-comparison variables o Rank-order variables ❖
Categorical variables come in a variety of formats: o Dichotomous variables have only two
response options (like yes/no) o Ordinal variables are ranked based on an inherent order o
Nominal variables are have no built-in order ABRAR & THAMER.M88 ❖ A survey about risk
factors for breast cancer might have sections on: o Sociodemographic (such as age, ethnicity,
education level, and income) o Family health history o Personal health history (such as
previous diagnoses of benign breast diseases and the date of the last screening
mammogram) o Reproductive history (including questions about gravidity, characteristics of
men teracycles., and use of hormones) o Lifestyle factors (such as alcohol use, exercise
history, and working the night shift) A survey ❖ Question Areas o Demographics o Key
exposures o Key disease / outcome o Related exposures and outcome ❖ List two advantages
of open-ended questions? o explain their selections and qualify their responses o give
multiple answers o provide responses not anticipated by the researcher o n-depth and semi-
structured interviews of individuals use open- ended questions to explore viewpoints o the
interviewer is allowed to probe for more details about any response in order to gain fuller
understanding of the participants experiences and perspectives
ch19
❖ Characteristics of Well-Trained Interviewers o Careful o Honest o Impartial o Consistent o
Respectful o Organized o Considered ❖ Participation rates will likely be higher if: o Recruits
understand the importance and value of the research project o Researchers provide multiple
invitations and opportunities to participate, and make participation as easy as possible o
Incentives (such as small gifts) are offered
Ch20
Supplementing Self-Reported Info. o Anthropometric Measures o Vital Signs o Clinical
Examination o Tests of Physiological Function o Laboratory Analysis of Biological Specimens
o Medical Imaging o Tests of Physical Fitness o Environmental Assessment o GIS (Geographic
Information Systems) ❖ laboratory analysis biological specimens may be helpful for
identifying o The risk factors for a disease o The presence of a disease or makers for a
disease o The characteristics associated with having a disease. ❖ Basic vital signs are

8. physiological measurements that can be accurately taken after minimal instruction. These
include: o Temperature o Blood pressure o Pulse (heart rate) o Respiratory rate (breathing
frequency) ❖ anthropometric measure o Height (stature) o Weight o Waist circumference o
Hip circumference o Mid-upper arm circumference o Skinfold measurements that estimate
the body fat percentage
Ch23
❖ Sources of Secondary analysis o publicly available individual-level or population-level data
o privately held survey data o clinical records ❖ U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) provides, on its website, data from several nationwide cross sectional
studies: o National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) o National Health
Interview Survey (NHIS) o Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) ❖ the
advantages of the publicly available data o Researchers may be able to download an entire
cleaned data set (and supporting documentation) immediately and at no cost directly from
the website of the sponsoring organization. o Secondary analysis is an excellent option for
researchers with strong statistical skills but limited time and/or data collection resources. ❖
Limitations of the publicly available data o The analyst is limited to exploring only the topics
included in the original survey. o The analyst has to trust that the data were collected using
valid and standardized methods. o It may be difficult to find someone who can answer
questions about the data collection process. o There is a risk of duplicating the analysis that
someone else has done or is doing
Ch24
❖ systematic review is the careful compilation and summary of all publications relevant to a
particular research topic. ❖ A meta-analysis creates a summary statistic (a pooled statistic)
for the results of systematically identified articles. ❖ Threats to the validity of a meta-
analysis: o Poor quality of included studies: The selection criteria used during the systematic
review process can eliminate any studies of questionable validity. o Publication bias: The
possibility of publication bias can be examined using a funnel plot. ABRAR & THAMER.M88
❖ systematic review process requires o Identification of an appropriately narrow study
question. o Selection of well defined research strategy o Screening of all potentially relevant
articles to determine whether they determine the predefined eligibility criteria. o Extraction
of relevant information from all eligible article o summary of the finding of these articles o
OR o Define study question o Define research strategy o Define eligibility criteria o Search
for abstracts by key word o Screen abstracts o Check full-text articles for eligibility o Extract
information o Summarize findings o Write & report ❖ After identifying a well-defined study
question, the next critical step in a systematic review or meta-analysis is to o select
appropriate databases o search terms, o search limiters. ❖ articles is extracted into data
extraction tables that list descriptive characteristics like: o The study location and study
years o The study design o The study population and sample size o The key findings of
interest o The strengths and limitations of the study
Ch25
❖ Data management refers to the entire process of record keeping. ❖ codebook o specifies
how the collected information will be entered into a computer database. o The codebook
also describes how anticipated data problems, such as missing data, will be handled. ❖ Data

9. cleaning is the process of correcting any typographical or other errors in database files, such
as extra spaces, typos, the use of lower-case instead of capital letters, or the presence of
extremely unreasonable responses. ❖ essential to maintain the confidentiality of any
information participants disclosed to researchers. o Store paper records in a locked and
secure room. o Create secure password-protected computerized data files. o Do not include
individually-identifying information in any electronic file containing other information about
participants. o Only allow key research personnel to access records.
Ch26
❖ There are several ways to classify variables: o Ratio variables o Interval variables ▪
Continuous variables ▪ Discrete variables o Ordinal variables (ranked variables) o Nominal
variables (categorical variables) ▪ Binomial variables ❖ Measures of spread, also called
“dispersion,” are used to describe the variability and range of responses. o range o median o
quartiles o interquartile range (IQR) ❖ Three of the most serious forms of research
misconduct are: o Falsification-the misrepresentation of results. o Fabrication- the creation
of fake data. o Plagiarism-the use of other peoples ideas or words without proper
attribution. ❖ the researcher should consult with a statistician during the study design
process to ensure that o The sampling methods and sample size are appropriate. o The
questionnaire will yield usable data.- o The analytic strategy is a reasonable one. ❖
Measures of Central Tendency o The sample mean is calculated by adding up the values of
all responses provided to a question and dividing that sum by the total number of individuals
who answered the question. o The median is the middle number when all responses are put
in order from least to greatest. Half of the responses in a data set will be greater than the
median, _and half will be less. o The mode is the most common answer given by
respondents.
Ch27
❖ Definition o null hypothesis (H0 ) describes the expected result of a statistical test if there
is no difference between the two values being compared. o The alternative hypothesis (Ha )
describes the expected result if there is a difference o Confidence intervals (CIs) provide
information about the expected value of a measure in a source population based on the
value of that measure in a study population. o Failing to reject the null hypothesis means
concluding that the there is no evidence that the values are different. Functionally, this is
like saying that the values are close enough to be considered similar, but failing to reject H0
should never be taken as evidence that the values are the same. o Independent populations:
populations in which each individual can be a member of only one of the population groups
being compared ❖ Compare o Parametric tests assume that the variables being examined
have particular (usually normal) distributions and that the variances for the variables being
examined be similar in the population groups being compared. o Nonparametric tests do not
make assumptions about the distributions of responses. ❖ What dose Rejecting the null
hypothesis mean? o concluding that the values are different by rejecting the claim that the
values are not different. ❖ Plan for Hypothesis Testing o Select variable to compare o
Specify the goal of the test o Check variable type o Choose appropriate test for the variable
o Confirm that the assumption of the test met o Run test and interpret results

10. Ch29
❖ Research articles almost always have the same structure: OR list any four structure
research articles o Abstract o Introduction o Methods o Results o Discussion ❖ Compare o A
structured abstract uses subheadings, like objective, methods, results, and conclusion, to
highlight content. o An unstructured abstract usually follows the same outline but does not
list the section titles. ❖ The endmatter may include o author affiliations o contributions o
acknowledgments o information about some ethical aspects of research o list of funding
sources ❖ discussion section usually begins with a summary of the key findings of the new
study ❖ abstract is a summary of the article. ❖ methods section should begin by clearly o
identifying the study design used. o Definitions should be provided for the key exposures,
outcomes, and other variables. o All data collection methods should be described. o Ethical
considerations should be briefly described. o The section should end with a description of
the statistical methods used. ❖ Most introduction sections conclude o a statement about
the importance or significance of the study o the specific aims o objectives, o hypotheses
Ch32
❖ Every paper should tell a “story” that has: o A beginning—the introduction sets the stage
o A middle—the methods and results say what happened o An end—the discussion provides
a conclusion that ties all the parts of the story together ❖ In a final check, look at each word,
sentence, paragraph, and section, examining style and clarity. o Words must be used
carefully. o Sentences must be concise and clear. o The voice must be consistent. o The
grammar and spelling must be proper throughout ❖ next step is to check the structure and
content of the manuscript. The paper should be well o organized o complete o accurate