Recapitulative problems of medical research methodology Utility: • to rehearse basic knowledge of medical research methodology, which in turn helps you: to perform the research for your graduation thesis to answer clinical questions and to practice evidence based medicine/dentistry (E.B.M. / E.B.D.) to unde rsta nd and cri tically appr aise academic papers that you wi ll read as part of your continuous medical education (C.M.E.) to understand and critically appraise oral presentations at congresses and other conferences that you will attend as part of your continuous medical education (C.M.E.) Requirements: Create a PowerPoint presentation entitled Recapitulative Problems , with a subtitle that should contain your full name, study year and group. Save this file on your partition, using the format LastName FirstName (ex. Schiller Friedrich). The PowerPoint file should contain the solutions for the following problems: 1. Solve the fol lowi ng requi rement s usin g the dat abase BD_Corel (en). xls : A. Comput e the mean and standar d deviatio n (SD) for the crani al perimet er express ed in cm. Explain in words what percentage of the studied sample is included between the limits mean ± 1 SD. B. Comput e the mean and its 95% confi dence inter val (95% CI) for th e cranial peri meter expr essed in cm. Explain in words the significance of this confidence interval. Does the computed mean refer to the studied sample or to the po pulation from which this sample has been extracted? C. Perf orm a correct gra phic repre sentat ion for the distr ibuti on of the variabl e Milk Type. Comment upon the obtained distribution. D. Perf orm a correct grap hic repres entat ion for the distribution of the variable Weight. Evaluate the normality of the obtained distribution. E. Per for m a cor rec t gra phi c rep res ent ation of the relati on bet wee n Cranial Perimeterand Thorax Perimeterexpressed in cm. Interpret the obtained graphic. F. Does the mean wei ght at bir th dif fer si gni fi cant ly bet ween urba n and rur al babi es? Note the obtained p-value, the name of the applied statistical test, the difference between the mean weights ofthe two groups. Interpret the obtained result from statistical and clinical point of view. G. Obtai n a correct conti ngency tab le between rur al / urban proven ience and the gend er of the baby. Plot the associated column chart. Evaluate if there exists a link between these two variables. 2. A study has bee n perfor med in order to anal yze the infl uence of tumo r stadia lizat ion upon the surv ival ofpatients diagnosed with broncho-pulmonary cancer in 1995, in a group of patients from Oradea, who refused any treatment. The patients have been followed and their survival time, in days, has been recorded. The tumor stadialization has been coded 1 for advanced stages of the disease and 0 for less advanced stages. If the event (death by broncho-pulmonary cancer) has been reached, the censor variable has been coded 0, if, on the contrary, data was censored, the censor variable has been coded 1. The obtained data have been collected in file BD_S2(en).xls : A. Specify: a. the domain of clinical research (Description of a new health phenomenon; Evaluation of a diagnostic procedure; Evaluation of a therapeutic approach; Evaluation of a risk or prognostic factor) b. the study type based on the researcher’s approach (Descriptive / Analytical) c. the study type based on the researcher’s intervention (Observational / Experimental) d. the type of data collection based on its duration (Cross-sectional / Longitudinal [retrospective / prospective])
