EBP107

EVIDENCE BASED PRACTICE

Week 5
Module 3.1
Research Designs
Research Designs

■ Quantitative
■ Qualitative
DESIGN TREE
 Research Design
A few different types, but those outlined in Polgar & Thomas, 2008 are:
 Experimental

 Cohort Studies -Quasi-experimental (still examine cause & effect but

no randomisation).
 Single case

 Surveys

 Qualitative Research

Important to understand that they all represent scientific research

 Analytic Design

Experimental
• Randomized
• Non randomized
Observational
• Cohort Study
• Cross Sectional
• Case Control
 Experimental
 EXPERIMENTAL (Chapter 5, Polgar & Thomas, 2008)

 Systematic – involve a sequence of steps

 Have intervention – require manipulation of one or more independent
variables to study the causal effect on a dependent variable
 Are generally randomised – by random assignment of subject to the
treatment and control groups
 Are generally controlled – usually by comparing a treatment group to
a control (non-intervention) group
 Considered to be low in risk of bias
 Experimental
Polgar & Thomas discuss four different types:
 Pre-test/post-test – measurements of the outcome or dependent variables are
taken before and after the intervention. Consider practice effect.
 Post-test only – Measurements of the outcome or dependent variables are taken
only after the intervention. Assumes that the treatment and control groups are
initially identical and that there is no change in the control group. Useful when
pre-test measures are impossible or unethical to carry out.
 Repeated measures – Where subjects are “re-used” and used as their own
control. For example, if want to measure the effect of two drugs, A and B, can
administer A first followed by B. Need to cross-over to minimise order effects.
 Factorial – Looking for interactions between two or more factors. Factorial
designs therefore have more than one independent variable. Analysis of multiple
dependent variables is also possible.
 Experimental

Limitations
 Participant recruitment – usually require a large number of participants
 Economics – usually costly as requires many resources
 Time – usually lengthy due to the number of participants that have to
be treated and measured
 Ethical Issues – may not be ethical to withhold treatment from a
control group
 Practice effect – e.g. In measures of skill, subjects improve in the
second test even in the absence of intervention (consider pre-test/post
test)
 Experimental

 Limitations
Hawthorne effect – tendency of persons who are singled out
for special attention to perform better (or different) merely
because they are being observed

Rosenthal effect – expectations of the researchers that can

influence how subjects respond.
 COHORT- QUASI–Observational
 QUASI– (Chapter 6, Polgar & Thomas, 2008)
 No randomisation of subjects in treatment and control groups
 Generally used when it is unethical to assign subjects to a treatment or
control group.
 For Example: In an investigation of the long term effects of smoking, it
would be unethical to assign subjects to a “treatment” group in which
they are required to smoke. Under these circumstances, participants who
are already smokers would be required to form the control group – hence,
no randomisation.
 As no randomisation, higher risk of bias
 SINGLE CASE
 SINGLE CASE (n=1 designs) (Chapter 7 Polgar & Thomas, 2008)
 Analysis of individual patients
 Usually used to understand the specific causes of an individual’s
problems/symptoms
 Three types:
 AB: “ A” (establishes baseline) – period prior to intervention in which
measurements are taken and “B” – period after intervention in which
measurements are continued
 ABAB: alternation of intervention with no intervention (or baseline) phases
 Multiple baseline: involve the use of concurrent observations to generate
two or more baselines
Descriptive Design

■ Survey
■ Qualitative
 SURVEYS
 SURVEYS (Chapter 6 Polgar & Thomas, 2008)
 Research aimed at collecting information so as to describe the
characteristics of a population in terms of specific variables
 Commonly used to:
 to establish attitudes, opinions or beliefs of people;
 to study the characteristics of populations with regard to a specific
topic
 to collect information about the demographic characteristics (eg age
, sex, income etc) of populations
 Results of surveys can form the basis of hypotheses
 Qualitative
 QUALITATIVE (Chapter 8 Polgar & Thomas, 2008)
 Sometimes referred to as interpretive research
 Involves the investigation of groups or individuals in their natural
environments (i.e. in their own social settings)
 “Qualitative” in terms of the data collected – i.e. use language and
detailed descriptions (as opposed to numbers and quantity measurements
in quantitative research)
 Generally adopted when a researcher seeks to understand the thoughts,
experiences and feelings of subjects in coping with various situations
 Subjective positioning of researcher (as opposed to objective positioning
of researcher in quantitative research)
 Reading Guide
 Kane, M. (2004) Research Made Easy in Complementary &
Alternative Medicine Chapters 2 & 3 Churchill Livingstone:
Edinburgh.
 Polgar, S. & Thomas, S. A. (2008) Introduction to Research in
the Health Sciences (5th ed.). Elsevier: Edinburgh.
 Portney, L. G. & Watkins, M. (2009) Foundations of Clinical
Research, Applications to Practice (3rd ed.). Pearson Prentice
Hall: New Jersey