Conducting Health Research PDF

Conducting Health Research Psyc 178, Fall 2024 ✧ Sylvester Colligan (76-year-old man) had trouble with his right knee ✧ His doctor diagnosed him with arthritis ✧ Signed up for an “experimental” surgery by Dr. J. Bruce Moseley, whom he heard was the team doctor with the Rockets. ✧ Went...

Conducting Health Research Psyc 178, Fall 2024 ✧ Sylvester Colligan (76-year-old man) had trouble with his right knee ✧ His doctor diagnosed him with arthritis ✧ Signed up for an “experimental” surgery by Dr. J. Bruce Moseley, whom he heard was the team doctor with the Rockets. ✧ Went home after the surgery and had no problem with his knee anymore ✧ Except, Dr. Moseley didn’t actually perform the surgery, he just gave him anesthesia and cut the skin on his knee to make it look like a surgery What is a placebo? What is the underlying cause of the placebo effect? What is a nocebo? Research and the Placebo ✧ Treatments are effective when the treatment is more effective than the placebo ✧ To determine if treatments are effective ✧ Need to directly compare treatment versus the placebo ✧ Use two groups of people: one group receives treatment, and one group receives placebo Create an experiment to learn if the treatment was indeed effective Why Conduct Health Research? Theoretical Models ✧ Theory - a set of related assumptions that can be used to formulate testable hypotheses ✧ Psychologists “measure” many different concepts ✧ self-report survey ✧ Using a heart monitor to measure heart rate reactivity Theoretical Models: ✧ Reliability - consistency ✧ Inter-rater reliability ✧ Test-rest reliability ✧ Validity - measures what it is designed to measure ✧ Predictive validity How to Conduct Health Research? Cross-Sectional Studies ✧ Cross-sectional studies — conducted at one time point, examining different age groups Longitudinal Studies ✧ Longitudinal studies - follow the same set of participants over time Observational Methods ✧ Two types: ✧ Prospective studies and retrospective studies Correlation Does not Equal Causation ✧ Correlation: association between two variables ✧ “Direction” and “Strength” What if one variable decreases and the other variable also decreases? (positive or negative?) Correlation Does Not Equal Causation Correlation Does Not Equal Causation Determining Causality: Experimental Design Experimental group vs. control group Experimental Design ✧ Random assignment Experimental Design ✧ Independent variables vs. Dependent variables Experimental Design ✧ The experimental group receives one level of independent variable and the control group a different level of the independent variable Example: Randomized Controlled Trials ✧ RCTs are considered the “gold standard” of research design ✧ Must avoid self-selection Clinical Trials: Meta-Analysis How to be a good consumer of research? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Rnq1NpHdmw Becoming an Informed Reader of Health-Related Research on the Internet ✧ Who runs the website? ✧ What is the purpose of the website? ✧ What is the evidence supporting a claim? ✧ Is there adequate information available to evaluate the research design of a scientific study? ✧ How is the information reviewed before it is posted? ✧ How current is the information? Ethical Considerations What Is Ethics in Research & Why Is It Important? by David B. Resnik, J.D., Ph.D. ✧ Source: https://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/resources/bioethics/whati s/index.cfm ✧ Ethics: norms for conduct that distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable behavior ✧ Norms promote the aims of research, such as knowledge, truth, and avoidance of error What Is Ethics in Research ✧ Ethical standards promote values that are essential to collaborative work: trust, accountability, mutual respect, and fairness ✧ Ethics hold researchers accountable to the public ✧ Help to build public support for research ✧ Many government agencies have ethics rules for funded researchers ✧ All people recognize some common ethical norms but interpret, apply, and balance them in different ways in light of their own values and life experiences. Ethical principles ❖ Honesty ❖ Responsible Mentoring ❖ Objectivity ❖ Respect for colleagues ❖ Integrity ❖ Social Responsibility ❖ Carefulness ❖ Non-Discrimination ❖ Openness ❖ Competence ❖ Transparency ❖ Legality ❖ Accountability ❖ Animal care ❖ Intellectual property ❖ Human Subjects ❖ Confidentiality Protection ❖ Responsible Publication