Respond to two of your classmates’ original posts. Critique the decisions that were made, discuss alternative options, and ask questions about anything that was not fully explained.
Do not have to reply to discussion question just the 2 students discussion posts, only for reference:
Review your conceptual model, research questions, and hypotheses that you finalized in Week 5. Discuss how you would implement your idea as an observational research design. Select a cross-sectional, cohort, or case-control study. Explain why you made that selection and what the study would look like (ex. If a cohort study, who is in the original sample? How do you define exposed and unexposed? How do you identify the diseases? How long do you follow them?). Then, discuss whether an observational research design makes sense for your idea. It is entirely possible that it doesn’t.
Take a sufficient amount of time to prepare before posting. Research design selection and how it is implemented takes considerable thought. You may also need to use this information for your final research proposal.
Student 1:
Cartilda Smith
For my research I would use a cross sectional study to identify the factors that contribute to black maternal disparities. For the study post partum patients who are up to 3 years post partum will be studied. I chose a cross sectional study because different variables would be taken into consideration and compared. For instance, pregestational medical history, prenatal history, delivery information, post-natal records and sociodemographic information. With a cross sectional study subgroups can also be created based namely one based on race. To pinpoint which patients are more prone to experience maternal health care disparities. Thus, I would identify black maternal disparities by measuring the number of patients who have experienced a health care outcome and their race. I believe an observational research idea is right for my idea given there are no structured settings to conduct a study on post partum patients. Who could have given birth anywere from 6 months to 3 years prior to the study. Therefore, there would be no real time patient choices or reactions .
Student 2:
Robin Hughes
Based on how my study is shaping up so far, I picked a cohort study would be the best observational study design. A cohort study follows a group over time to see how exposures develop into outcomes. My participant group is teenagers in public schools, with the variables of (independent) diet and (dependent) obesity. So this could be a useful design to see how not only the relationship between these variables, but also how my mediating and moderating variable affect the outcome. Or, I could possibly discover some entirely different exposure that leads to the outcome.
The original participant group would be the 8th graders enrolled in public schools in my area at the beginning of the study. This group selected would be followed until they graduate. I would use questionnaires, as well as basic measurements from each participant, to determine exposures and outcome. Questionnaires would ask the students to answer questions to identify various dietary exposures such as what a typical meal is for dinner, how many vegetables do they eat, do they eat meals at home or out, how many sugary beverages are consumed each day? And so on. Measurement data would be height and weight (preferably measured by the research team and not self-reported) to identify those who have reached the outcome of obesity based on BMI calculations.
I believe this method makes sense with my study, from an observational standpoint from the three presented for this discussion. A cross-sectional will not give me the information I am looking for. Since obesity happens slower and overtime, a snapshot of even a single year in time would not likely help much to fully connect the relationship between diet and teen obesity. A case-control study would be highly unreliable, as we would need to go back several years to identify exposures that led to the outcome. With dietary choices being part of the exposures list, it would not be feasible to ask anyone to describe their meals and eating habits from 8th grade. They are not likely to remember leading to recall biases, plus participants may be tempted to give socially desirable answers which adds more biases.
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