Chapter 3 – Methods and issues in research

the study of how diseases occur, spread, affect people and are controlled.

The number of people with a disease at a given time.

The number of new cases of a disease at a given time.

What exists, what we believe is real can be studied.

How we gain knowledge about things.

Data that are collected in a way that is unbiased, not affected by thoughts, emotions or opinions.

Results that are influence by personal thoughts, emotions or opinions.

Ways to collect numerical data that are analysed using statistical methods.

A statement or prediction that is testable using statistical methods.

Ways to collect words, pictures, documents to understand meaning and experiences.

An exploratory statement that a qualitative study will address.

A summary statistic, usually the mean, mode or median.

A statistic that shows how scores or values are spread out from the mean.

The extent to which a questionnaire measures what it is supposed to measure.

How consistent the score of a questionnaire is over time and how well items in a questionnaire are related.

A study conducted over a period of time with the same people providing data at different timepoints, used to see if things change over time.

An inert substance, such as a tablet that contains no active ingredient.

The specific characteristics that a person must meet to take part in a study. The specific characteristics that studies must met to be included in a systematic review.

The specific characteristics that prevent a person from taking part in a study. The specific characteristics that prevent studies from being included in a systematic review.

A non statistical way of summarising the findings of a systematic review.

A method that combines the statistical results of studies that have been included within a systematic review.

The measure that the researcher considers to be the most important of several outcomes in a study.

A method that combines and synthesises the findings from individual qualitative studies that have been included with a systematic review.

Selecting participants on the basis that they have specific knowledge or experience of the topic or area that they study is addressing.

Four aspects of trustworthiness, credibility, dependability, transferability and confirmability are used to assess the validity of qualitative studies, with the addition of reflexivity,

The use of quantitative and qualitative methods in the same study.

An Indigenous method of qualitative data collection that uses a respectful conversational technique.

A process in which ideas and explanations are synthesised to understand behaviour.

A structured plan used to check whether a research project or intervention achieved the intended goals.

Research that is conducted in collaboration with participants, who may help with the planning, study design, data collection, analysis and or dissemination.

Research that places people’s values, culture and knowledge at the heart of research.

Working with communities in a culturally respectful way, can include research and or intervention development.

Looking at various aspect of systems within a groups or society are interconnected.

Working in partnership with communities or organisations to ensure that knowledge gin through research is shared throughout the research process and not just at the end of a study.

Non-medical factors that can have impacts on health, for example, poverty, educational level, housing access to healthcare.

The inability of researchers to repeat a study and get the same or similar results.

Conducting multiple statistical analyses to find a result that is significant, rather than testing the originally specified hypotheses.

When researchers change the hypotheses of a study after seeing the results.

Placing the study methods and data analysis plans or the protocol for a systematic review in a open research forum.

Making science more transparent and accessible by sharing data, methods, and results openly.