Quantitative Research in Public Health

• The presentation is titled "SAP-7000: Quantitative Research in Public Health, Theme 2: Foundations of Scientific Reasoning," presented by Anik Giguère, PhD, Professor, Department of Family Medicine and Emergency Medicine, hiver 2025.
• The topics to be covered include evidence-based public health, introduction to scientific research and quantitative methods, quality criteria for a research project, and the research protocol, including its purpose, sections, and writing guides.

The Place of Research in Public Health

• Public health is defined as the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting health through organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private entities, communities, and individuals.

Key Functions of Public Health

• Conduct research and evaluate health-promoting/disease-preventing strategies.
• Develop new methodologies for research and evaluation.

Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM)

• EBM involves considering the clinical context, integrating scientific evidence on the effectiveness of different options, considering patient preferences, and recommending treatments that patients will accept based on professional clinical expertise.

Evidence-Based Public Health (EBPH)

• EBPH is the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the health of communities and populations.

Fields Influencing Evidence-Based Public Health

• Data
• Environmental Context
• Decision Making
• Resources, including the expertise from health professionals
• Characteristics of the Population

Process for Creating Evidence-Based Data in Public Health

• Community evaluation
• Problems are quantified
• Short problem Statement describing the key issues and needs
• Collect existing information that will help define and measure the success
• Prioritize possible actions based on quantitative measurements
• Action plan is developed, including how it will be implemented
• Review implementation, to discover any new problems or community needs

The Scientific Research

• Scientific research involves a rationale, empirical data collection to describe, explain, predict or control phenomena, knowledge acquisition, and using methods to answer specific questions.
• Scientific research isn't information searches on the internet or in the library.

Diversity of Research

• Large-scale studies of large populations are possible
• Small scale studies of small population or events are also possible
• Laboratory experiments, studies, and events in real-world

The Quantitative Research Approach

• Quantitative research involves collecting a database with which to answer questions

Why Learn to Evaluate the Quality of a Research Project

• Conduct your own research
• Criticize sources of information
• Make decisions and defend your positions
• Sort through abundant available information
• Improve understanding of results
• Apply results
• Policies and programs are improved

General Principles of the Scientific Approach

• Skepticism
  • Scientific knowledge advances through trial and error requiring critical analysis.
• Fallibility
  • No theory is true forever
  • No knowledge is ever said to be definitive.
• Refutation
  • Theories that cant be disproved have no scientific meaning
  • Models are only useful if they can accurately predict experimental data

Limits of Quantitative Research

• Quantitative research is never perfect.
• Quantitative research is limited to specific points
• Aims to generalize results from a sample to an entire population
• Rarely/Never definitively cumulative
• Competition and criticism are inherent parts

Criteria for Sound Science

• Terminology varies by epistemological school with positivist research emphasizing validity and interpretive research emphasizing rigor.
• Shared Criteria:
  • Validity: The capacity to render an adequate and understandable account of a phenomenon.
  • Transparency: Exposing methods and assumptions to the public and scientific community.

Internal Validity

• It depends on quality of study design and correctness of data or statistical model
• Is determined by the design of the study
• Is measurements have validity
• Statistics used are valid It affects the credibility of results
• Can findings be trusted?
• Did the researchers really discover what they said?
• Did something cause an error?

External Validity:

• Is determined by how well the sample can correlate to other samples
• The selection of samples
• Was an intervention made
• How the data was collected
• It affects the value of a study:
• Are the results transferrable, populations, periods

Scientific Legitimacy

• Scientific legitimacy is enhanced through skepticism, comprehensive validation, practical and systematic observations, credibility in investigations, and transparency.

The Utility of a Protocol

• A protocol meets the requirements for transparency regarding the scientific community's methods and assumptions.

Principle of Transparency of Research Protocol

• The protocol is a hypothesis where with the help of an intervention, there is an improvement of the data
• After empirical observations the intervention does not improve the data, or it is the same

Research Process Steps

• Phase 1: Conceptual

  • The initial question should be made
  • Review other works and topics
  • Design a framework of the research
  • Formulate goals
  • State hypothesis

• Phase 2: Methodological

  • Is the research in conflict with others?
  • Can you review someone else work or copy it
  • Whats population and the sample
  • Define experimental variables
  • How the data be collect and analyzed

• Phase 3: Emperical

  • How the data be collected with organization

• Phase 4: Analytical

• How the data be interpreted

• How the results be integrated

• Phase 5: Diffusion

  • How the results be communicated

Research Protocol Plan

• A title name
• The research questions and the importance and context of the question being asked
• Current and historical references
• Objectives
• Study design like data, methodology, dependant and independant variables, and the test design
• What are the ethics and privacy implications of the sampling or research questions that are involved in the research
• Timeframe

Guides for Edition

• Refer to the equator network organization
• 655 writing guides archived
• Editing the documents that are written based on results

Activities

• Recommended readings from the book: Fortin, M.-F.; Gagnon, J. Foundations and stages of the research process: quantitative and qualitative methods, 4th edition.; Montreal: Chenelière Education, 2022.
• Chapter 1 pages 1 - 17
• Chapter 3, sections 3.1 and 3.2, pages 31-35

Explore quantitative research in public health, focusing on scientific reasoning. The session covers evidence-based practices, research methodologies, and quality criteria for projects. Learn about research protocols, their purpose, and essential writing guidelines for effective public health research.