Seminar Assignment: Summary and Concepts of a Scientific Study

 

Copy from the Study Guide:

Before the seminar, you are to read a published scientific article and answer related specific questions, appointed by the examiner. A template with information on the article and questions, with more detailed instructions, will be available on the Course Canvas.

 

You may use the course literature and materials assigned by the teacher (content of the lectures, potential other materials, see course Canvas), and/or additional sources of information. Apply the information to the specific assignment questions.

In the seminar, you will be divided into smaller groups. In the smaller groups, you will discuss your individual answers to some of the questions (appointed by the examiner) and prepare your common answers.

 

The common answers will then be presented to and discussed with the whole seminar group and the examiner. The seminar ends in an oral evaluation and feedback session.

 

B) More detailed instructions:

 

Read the article mentioned on the next page and answer the following questions on the template. Note that the questions may have several sub-questions.

 

Do not remove the numbering system or the actual questions from the template but write your answers below each sub-question. For example, regarding question 1a: push SHIFT+Enter in the end of the row to create a new row; write your answer; push again Enter in the end of your answer to create an empty line between your answer and question 1b; and so on.

 

Remember to write your name in the document and in the file name

 

1. Summary of the study

a)    What was the purpose of the study?

b)    Which study design was used? (Note. Study designs will be studied in detail later)

c)    How were study subjects chosen/recruited to the study?

d)    Who were the study participants? Give a short description about the study participants.

e)    What was/were the main result(s) of the study? Give a short summary of the main finding(s).

f)    Which strengths and weaknesses do the authors discuss in the Discussion?

g)    What was the authors’ conclusion?

 

2. Concepts 

a)    Is the study type of descriptive or analytical epidemiology? (course book Ch. 4.1 and 5.1)

b)    Outcome

a.    What was/were the outcome(s) of the study? 

b.    What do you think about the validity and reliability of the measurement of the outcome(s)? (course book Ch. 10.1, 10.2 (sub-chapter Essential background), and 10.3 (sub-chapter Sensitivity and specificity)

c)    Exposure

a.    What was/were the exposure(s) of the study?

b.    How was/were it/they measured and defined?

d)    Relate the following types of error to the present study (course book Ch. 9)

a.    Selection bias

b.    Information bias

c.    Confounding
 

e)    Relate the concept of statistical power to the present study.

f)    Comment on the generalizability (external validity) of the study findings?

g)    What are your reflections related to causality (course book Ch. 2) and this study?

Statistical power and generalizability are not well described in the coursebook. For statistical power, see Ch. 21 in Stewart, Antony. Basic statistics and epidemiology. A practical guide., and/or ERIC Notebook No. 2. For generalizability, see lecture notes.

Note. Logistic regression analysis and Interactions are beyond the present course.

 

Results

1.    Which epidemiological measures were reported? (course book Ch. 3)

2.    Which statistical methods/measures were used to assess the amount of random error in the study results? (course book Ch. 9 and 13 (not 13.4.)

 

3.    See Table II. 

a.    What does the table show, in general?

b.    Explain the result for women and men regarding overweight (BMI ? 25 kg/m2), based on the following questions:

i.    What does “1 (ref)” mean?

ii.    How do you interpret the result 2.24 (2.15–2.33)?

c.    Related to results shown in the table, it is said in the main text: “Younger individuals had lower rates of overweight, obesity and severe obesity vs older individuals (P<0.001 for all), see Table II.” How do you interpret “P<0.001”?

4.    See Figure 1.

a.    Explain what is shown in the first panel titled “Obesity in Swedish adults, 1995-2017”

b.    What does “All data are standardized across time periods” refer to?

5.    See Table III.

a.    What does the table show, in general?

b.    How do you interpret the following result for the total sample regarding overweight (BMI ? 25 kg/m2): 1.022 (1.021–1.023)?