BIOCHEM 301 Lecture 8: Research methods 1-21
12 Apr 2016
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Study design/methods: overview, setting, sampling, procedures, measures and analysis. Any design except not descriptive, wants us to go beyond. Dependent or predicted variable should be a health behavior or health outcome: ex: disease prevalence rate, disease severity/outcome, treatment adherence/access, frequency of behavior. Keep the scope simple: do not design studies that are very expensive, lengthy, complex, or unethical, must be able to demonstrate your understanding of how to analyze and interpret the results. Researchers are interested in how and why health behaviors and outcomes vary across situations, differ among individuals, and change over time. All research questions can be phrased in terms of variability. Statistical analyses are used to describe and account for observed variability. When there is a normal distribution, you can predict how many cases are within a certain increment away from the mean. Know all the numbers and what they mean. Descriptive statistics: used to summarize and describe the behavior/health of participants in a study.
