Health Research: Process and Studies

• Health research systematically and carefully investigates a subject to discover new information.
• This research examines biological, socioeconomic, and environmental factors related to health, disease, disability, and death.

Population Based Studies vs. Laboratory studies

• Laboratory studies occur in controlled research facilities, covering areas like molecular biology, microbiology, immunology, and genetics.
• Population-based studies involve human subjects.

Steps of the Research Process

• The research process involves identifying a study question, selecting a study approach, designing the study, collecting data, analyzing data, and reporting the findings.

EDPs (Exposure, Disease/Outcome, Population)

• EDP refers to exposure and disease/outcome in a population.
• Research originality stems not from discovering a new disease but from identifying a previously unrecognized people group, exposure, outcome, or population, such as on a remote island.

Study Goals and Objectives

• Research study types

Correlations/Ecological

• Objective: Explore correlations within populations or different groups.
• Population: Large, defined by geographic, age, or demographic characteristics.
• Requirements: Exposure and outcome data must be collected from different groups/populations.
• Look out for: Ecological fallacy/confounding.
• Key Statistical Measure: Correlation coefficient (r) and regression analysis.

Case-Control Study

• Objective: Compare cases with controls.
• Population: Those with (cases) and without (controls) relevant characteristics.
• Requirement: Determine who has or doesn't have the disease and gather information on past risk factors.
• Look out for: Recall bias, selection bias, and confounding.
• Key Statistical Measures: Odds ratio (OR), chi-square test.

Cross-Sectional Study

• Objective: Measure prevalence at a single point in time.
• Population: Individuals or groups.
• Requirement: Collect data on exposure and outcome simultaneously.
• Look out for: Causality and biased sampling.
• Key Statistical Measures: Prevalence and odds ratio (OR).

Cohort Study

• Objective: Follow subjects over time to measure outcomes.
• Population: Exposed vs. unexposed groups.
• Requirement: Track people for outcomes.
• Look out for: Loss to follow-up, confounding, and time/cost factors.
• Key Statistical Measures: Relative risk (RR) and Cox model.

Experimental Study

• Objective: Test causal relationships.
• Population: Randomized sample.
• Requirement: Randomization, control groups, blinding, and clear intervention protocols.
• Look out for: Ethical considerations, randomization issues, and external validity.
• Key Statistical Measures: P-value, confidence interval (CI), and relative risk (RR) or odds ratio (OR).

Statistical Measures:

• Correlation: Measures the relationship between two variables.
• Odds Ratio: Compares the odds of an event occurring between two groups.
• Risk Ratio: Compares the probability of an event in exposed versus non-exposed groups.
• Types of randomization include simple, block, stratified, adaptive, and minimization.

Health research systematically investigates new information. It looks at biological, socioeconomic, and environmental determinants of health, illness, and mortality. Research includes laboratory and population-based studies and follows a detailed process.