EPI 320 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Statistical Significance, Clinical Trial, Selection Bias
Document Summary
Overview: general structure of a paper, find the main hypothesis, what to look for in the methods, are the conclusions warranted, goal: give yourself a list of questions to ask yourself when reading a journal article. What"s the question: main hypothesis, exposure-outcome relationship, sometimes > 1 exposure or outcome, clues in the title or last paragraph/sentence of the intro, should be specific (not too general to refute) The methods: can the researchers answer their questions w the methods they used, look at: study design and pop, data collection and analysis. Study design: is this study design appropriate for the rq, is it an intervention or a new causality hypothesis, is the exposure/outcome rare, advantages/disadvantages of this design. Study population: selection bias: who is enrolled, why and who dropped out, generalizability/external validity: what is it about these people that make it hard to draw conclusions, any confounders.
