HLTH 200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Measuring Instrument, Dependent And Independent Variables, Public Health
Document Summary
A systematic way of answering a health-related question. Physicians, psychologists, nurses, other health care professionals. The need to synthesize research (literature reviews, systematic reviews, meta-analyses) The movement toward evidence-based practice: when people have done the research-practice continuum, have enough evidence, and implement it. What is practice-based evidence: ex: ulcers were thought to be caused by acidic foods. A doctor saw that people who had ulcers got sick more often, so he concluded that some ulcers were due to an immune system problem. Seek help from experts: ex: asking doctors at a clinic: how many cases they have seen, what are characteristics of the patients they are seeing, do they differ in an ways from the typical patient. Read the literature: search scientific peer-review literature, check out gov"t surveillance systems to see if other areas are experiencing increases in asthma severity. Formulate a testable hypothesis: the third variable problem: an outside factor that could contribute to either problem.
