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Evidence-based Practice
"A problem solving approach to practice that involves the conscientious use of current best evidence in making decisions about patient care; EBP incorporates a systematic search for and critical appraisal of the most relevant evidence to answer a clinical question along with one’s own clinical expertise and patient values and preferences." 1
A
Action research: A general term for a variety of approaches that aim to resolve social problems by improving existing conditions for oppressed groups or communities.
Adoption of research evidence: A process that occurs across five stages of innovation (i.e., knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation, and confirmation).
Applicability of study findings: Whether or not the effects of the study are appropriate for a particular patient situation.
Attrition: When subjects are lost from or drop their participation in a study (see loss of subjects to follow up).
Axial coding: A process used in grounded theory to relate categories of information by using a coding paradigm with predetermined subcategories (Strauss & Corbin, 1990).
B
Background questions: Questions that need to be answered as a foundation for asking the searchable, answerable foreground question. They are questions that ask for general information about a clinical issue and they have two components: the starting place of the question (e.g., what, where, when, why and how), and the outcome of interest (e.g., the clinical diagnosis).
Benchmarking: The process of looking outward to identify, understand, and adapt outstanding [best] practices and [high performance] to help improve performance.
Bias: Divergence of results from the true values or the process that leads to such divergence.
Biography: An approach that produces an in-depth report of a person’s life. Life histories and oral histories also involve gathering of biographical information and recording of personal recollections of one or more individuals.
Biosketch: A 2-3 page document, similar to a resume or brief curriculum vitae that captures an individual’s educational and professional work experience, honors, prior research grants, and publications.
Blind review: A review process in which identification of the author/creator/researcher is removed and, likewise, the identity of the reviewers so that anonymity of both parties is assured.
Blocking: A strategy introduced into a study that entails deliberately including a potential extraneous intrinsic or confounding variable in a study’s design in order to control its effects on the dependent or outcome variable.
Booster interventions: Interventions that are delivered after the initial intervention or treatment in a study for the purpose of enhancing the effects of the intervention.
Bracketing: Identifying and suspending previously acquired knowledge, beliefs, and opinions about a phenomenon.
C
Care delivery outcomes: The outcomes that are influenced by the delivery of clinical care.
Case-control study: A type of research that retrospectively compares characteristics of an individual who has a certain condition (e.g., hypertension) with one who does not (i.e., a matched control or similar person without hypertension); often conducted for the purpose of identifying variables that might predict the condition (e.g., stressful lifestyle, sodium intake).
Case reports: Reports that describe the history of a single patient, or a small group of patients, usually in the form of a story.
Case study: An intensive investigation of a case involving a person or small group of persons, an issue, or an event.
Categorical data: Data that is classified into categories (e.g., gender, hair color) instead of being numerically ordered.
Ceiling effects: Participant scores that cluster toward the high end of a measure
Clinical forethought: All the anticipated actions and plans relevant to a particular patient’s possible trends and trajectories that a clinician prepares for in caring for the patient.
Clinical grasp: Clinical inquiry in action. Includes problem identification and clinical judgment across time about the particular transitions of particular patient/family clinical situations. Four aspects of clinical grasp include making qualitative distinctions, engaging in detective work, recognizing changing relevance, and developing clinical knowledge about specific patient populations.
Clinical Inquiry: A process in which clinicians gather data together using narrowly defined clinical parameters; it allows for an appraisal of the available choices of treatment for the purpose of finding the most appropriate choice of action.
Clinical practice guidelines: Systematically developed statements to assist clinicians and patients in making decisions about care; ideally the guidelines consist of a systematic review of the literature, in conjunction with consensus of a group of expert decision-makers, including administrators, policy-makers, clinicians and consumers who consider the evidence and make recommendations
Clinical significance: Study findings that will directly influence clinical practice, whether they are statistically significant or not.
Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials: A bibliography of controlled trials identified by contributors to the Cochrane Collaboration and others
Cochrane Database of Methodology Reviews: Contains full text of systematic reviews of empirical methodological studies prepared by The Cochrane Empirical Methodological Studies Methods Group
Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews: Contains reviews that are highly structured and systematic with evidence included or excluded on the basis of explicit quality criteria, to minimize bias
Cochrane Methodology Register: A bibliography of articles and books on the science of research synthesis
Cohort study: A longitudinal study that begins with the gathering of two groups of patients (the cohorts), one that received the exposure (e.g., to a disease) and one that does not, and then following these groups over time (prospective) to measure the development of different outcomes (diseases).
Computer assisted qualitative data analysis: An area of technological innovation that, in qualitative research, has resulted in uses of word processing and software packages to support data management.
Confidence interval: A measure of the precision of the estimate. The 95% confidence interval (CI) is the range of values within which we can be 95% sure that the true value lies for the whole population of patients from whom the study patients were selected.
Confirmability: Demonstrated by providing substantiation that findings and interpretations are grounded in the data (i.e., links between researcher assertions and the data are clear and credible).
Confounding: Occurs when two factors are closely associated and the effects of one confuses or distorts the effects of the other factor on an outcome. The distorting factor is a confounding variable.
Confounding variables: Those factors that interfere with the relationship between the independent and dependent variables
Constant comparison: A systematic approach to analysis that is a search for patterns in data as they are coded, sorted into categories, and examined in different contexts.
Construct validity: The degree to which an instrument measures the construct it is supposed to be measuring
Contamination: The inadvertent and undesirable influence of an experimental intervention on another intervention.
Content analysis: In qualitative analysis, a term that refers to processes of breaking down narrative data (coding, comparing, contrasting and categorizing bits of information) and reconstituting them in some new form (e.g., description, interpretation, theory).
Content validity: The degree to which the items in an instrument are tapping the content they are supposed to measure.
Control group: A group of subjects who do not receive the experimental intervention or treatment.
Controlled vocabulary or thesaurus: A hierarchical arrangement of descriptive terms that serve as mapping agents for searches; often unique to each database
Convenience sampling: Drawing readily available subjects to participate in a study.
Correlational descriptive study: A study that is conducted for the purpose of describing the relationship between two or more variables
Correlational predictive study: A study that is conducted for the purpose of describing what variables predict a certain outcome.
Co-variate: A variable that is controlled for in statistical analyses (e.g., analysis of co-variance); the variable controlled is typically a confounding or extraneous variable that may influence the outcome.
Critical inquiry: Theoretical perspectives that are ideologically oriented toward critique of and emancipation from oppressive social arrangements or false ideas.
Critical Theory: A blend of ideology (based on a critical theory of society) and a form of social analysis and critique that aims to liberate people from unrecognized myths and oppression in order to bring about enlightenment and radical social change.
Cronbach alpha: An estimate of internal consistency or homogeneity of an instrument that is comprised of several subparts or scales.
Cross-contamination: Diffusion of the treatment or intervention across study groups
Cross-sectional study: A study designed to observe an outcome or variable at a single point in time, usually for the purpose of inferring trends over time.
Culture: Shared knowledge and behavior of people who interact within distinct social settings and subsystems.
D
Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE): Database that includes abstracts of systematic reviews that have been critically appraised by reviewers at the NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination at the University of York, England.
Data and safety monitoring plan: A detailed plan for how adverse effects will be assessed and managed.
Dependent or outcome variable: The variable or outcome that is influenced or caused by the independent variable.
Descriptive studies: Those studies that are conducted for the purpose of describing the characteristics of certain phenomena or selected variables.
Design: The overall plan for a study that includes strategies for controlling confounding variables, strategies for when the intervention will be delivered (in experimental studies) and how often and when the data will be collected.
Dialogical engagement: Thinking that is like a thoughtful dialogue or conversation.
Dimensional analysis: A method for generating grounded theory using an explanatory matrix (Schatzman, 1991).
Direct costs: Actual costs required to conduct a study (e.g., personnel, subject honoraria, instruments).
Discourse analysis: A general term for approaches to analyzing recorded talk and patterns of communication.
E
Educational prescription (EP): A written plan (usually self-initiated) for identifying and addressing EBP learning needs. The EP contains each step of the EBP process, but may have a primary focus on one or two steps, such as searching or critical appraisal.
Effect measures: Measures used to compare the differences in occurrences of outcomes between groups
Effect size: the strength of the effect of an intervention
Emergence: Glaser’s (1992) term for conceptually driven (“discovery”) vs. procedurally driven (“forcing”) theory development in his critique of Strauss & Corbin (1990).
Emic and etic: Contrasting “insider” views of informants (emic) and the researcher’s “outsider” (etic) views.
Epistemologies: ways of knowing and reasoning
Essences: Internal meaning structures of a phenomenon grasped through the study of human lived experience.
Ethnographic studies: Studies of a social group’s culture through time spent combining participant-observation and in-depth interviews in the informants’ natural setting
Event rate: the rate at which a specific event occurs.
Evidence-based clinical practice guidelines: specific practice recommendations that are based on a methodologically rigorous review of the best evidence on a specific topic.
Evidence-based decision making: The integration of best research evidence in making decisions about patient care which should also include the clinician’s expertise as well as patient preferences and values.
Evidence-based practice (EBP): a problem solving approach to practice that involves the conscientious use of current best evidence in making decisions about patient care; EBP incorporates a systematic search for and critical appraisal of the most relevant evidence to answer a clinical question along with one’s own clinical expertise and patient values and preferences.
Evidence-based theories: A theory that has been tested and supported through the accumulation of evidence from several studies.
Evidence summaries: Syntheses of studies (see systematic reviews).
Evidence-user: Anyone who uses valid evidence to support or change practice; demonstrating skills in interpreting evidence, not generating evidence.
Exclusion criteria: Investigator identified characteristics that are possessed by individuals that would exclude them from participating in a study.
Experiential learning: Experience requiring a turning around of preconceptions, expectations, sets, and routines or adding some new insights to a particular practical situation; a way of knowing that contributes to knowledge production; should influence the development of science
Experimental design/experiment: A study whose purpose is to test the effects of an intervention or treatment on selected outcomes. This is the strongest design for testing cause and effect relationships.
External validity: Generalizability; the ability to generalize the findings from a study to the larger population from which the sample was drawn.
Extraneous variables: Those factors that interfere with the relationship between the independent and dependent variables
F
Face validity: The degree to which an instrument appears to be measuring (i.e., tapping) the construct it is intended to measure.
Factorial design: An experimental design that has two or more interventions or treatments.
False positive: A condition where the test indicates that the person has the outcome of interest when, in fact, the person does not.
False negative: A condition where the test indicates that the person does not have the outcome of interest when, in fact, the person does.
Feminist epistemologies: A variety of views and practices inviting critical dialogue about women’s experiences in historical, cultural, and socioeconomic perspectives
Fieldnotes: Self-designed observational protocols for recording notes about field observations.
Field studies: Studies involving direct, first-hand observation and interviews in informants’ natural settings.
Fieldwork: All research activities carried out in and in relation to the field (informants’ natural settings).
Fixed effect model: Traditional assumption that the event rates are fixed in each of the control and treatment groups
Floor effects: Participant scores that cluster toward the low end of a measure
Focus groups: This type of group interview generates data on designated topics through discussion and interaction. Focus group research is a distinct type of study when used as the sole research strategy.
Foreground questions: Those questions that can be answered from scientific evidence about diagnosing, treating or assisting patients with understanding their prognosis, focusing on specific knowledge.
Forest plot: (colloquially called a “blobbogram”) Diagrammatic representation of the results (i.e., the effects or point estimates) of trials (i.e., squares or “blobs”) along with their confidence intervals (i.e., straight lines through the squares).
Funnel plot: The plotting of sample size against the effect size of studies included in a systematic review. The funnel should be inverted and symmetrical if a representative sample has been obtained.
G
Generalizability: the extent to which the findings from a study can be generalized or applied to the larger population (i.e. external validity).
Gold standard: An accepted and established reference standard or diagnostic test for a particular illness.
Grey literature: Refers to publications such as brochures and conference proceedings.
(Grounded) formal theory: A systematic explanation of an area of human /social experience derived through meta-analysis of substantive theory.
(Grounded) substantive theory: A systematic explanation of a situation-specific human experience/social phenomenon.
Grounded theory: Studies to generate theory about how people deal with life situations that is “grounded” in empirical data and describes the processes by which they move through experiences over time
H
Harm: When risks outweigh benefits.
Health Technology Assessment Database: Database containing information on healthcare technology assessments.
Hermeneutics: Philosophy, theories, and practices of interpretation.
Hierarchy of evidence: A mechanism for determining which study designs have the most power to predict cause-and-effect. The highest level of evidence is systematic reviews of RCTs, and the lowest level of evidence is expert opinion and consensus statements.
History: The occurrence of some event or program unrelated to the intervention that might account for the change observed in the dependent variable.
Hits: Studies obtained from a search that contain the searched word
Homogeneous study population/Homogeneity: When subjects in a study are similar on the characteristics that may affect the outcome variable(s).
Hyperlink: A connection to organized information that is housed in cyberspace and usually relevant to the site on which it was found.
Hypotheses: Predictions about the relationships between variables (e.g., adults who receive cognitive behavioral therapy will report less depression than those who receive relaxation therapy).
I
Incidence: New occurrences of the outcome or disorder within the at-risk population in a specified time frame
Inclusion criteria: Essential characteristics of potential participants that must be possessed in order to be considered for a study; these are established by the investigator.
Independent variable: the variable that is influencing the dependent variable or outcome; in experimental studies, it is the intervention or treatment.
Indirect costs: Costs that are not directly related to the actual conduct of a study, but are associated with the “overhead” in an organization, such as lights, telephones, office space.
Informatics: How data, information, knowledge, and wisdom are collected, stored, processed, communicated, and used to support the process of healthcare delivery to clients, providers, administrators, and organizations involved in healthcare delivery.
Integrative reviews: Systematic summaries of the accumulated state of knowledge about a concept, including highlights of important issues left unresolved.
Internal consistency reliability: The extent to which an instrument’s subparts are measuring the same construct.
Internal validity: The extent to which it can be said that the independent variable (i.e., the intervention) causes a change in the dependent variable (i.e., outcome), and the results are not due to other factors or alternative explanations.
Interpretive ethnography: Loosely characterized, a movement within anthropology that generates many hybrid forms of ethnographic work as a result of crossing a variety of theoretical boundaries within social science.
Inter-rater reliability: The degree to which two individuals agree on what they observe.
Interval data: Data that has quantified intervals and equal distances between points, but without a meaningful zero point (temperature in Farenheit degrees); often referred to as continuous data
Introspection: A process of recognizing and examining one’s own inner state or feelings.
K
Key informant: A select informant/assistant with extensive or specialized knowledge of his/her own culture.
L
Levels of Evidence are presented here for causal inference for decision making. Other inferences (e.g., meaning) would use a different leveling system for appropriate evidence to answer such a question.
Level I evidence: Evidence that is generated from systematic reviews or meta-analyses of all relevant randomized controlled trials or evidence-based clinical practice guidelines based on systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials; the strongest level of evidence to guide clinical practice;
Level II evidence: Evidence generated from a least one well designed randomized clinical trial (i.e., a true experiment)
Level III evidence: Evidence obtained from well-designed controlled trials without randomization
Level IV evidence: Evidence from well-designed case-control and cohort studies
Level V evidence: Evidence from systematic reviews of descriptive and qualitative studies
Level VI evidence: Evidence from a single descriptive or qualitative study
Level VII evidence: Evidence from the opinion of authorities and/or reports of expert committees
Likelihood Ratio: The likelihood that a given test result would be expected in patients with a disease compared to the likelihood that the same result would be expected in patients without that disease.
Lived experience: Everyday experience, not as it is conceptualized, but as it is lived (i.e., how it feels).
Loss of subjects to follow up: The proportion of people who started the study but do not complete the study, for whatever reason.
M
Macro level change: Change at a large-scale level (e.g., nation-wide systems or large institutions)
Magnitude of effect: Expressing the size of the relationship between two variables or difference between two groups on a given variable/outcome (i.e., the effect size).
Manipulation checks: Assessments verifying that subjects have actually processed the experimental information that they have received or followed through with prescribed intervention activities.
Maturation: Developmental change that occurs, even in the absence of the intervention.
Mean: A measure of central tendency, derived by summing all scores and dividing by the number of participants.
Mediating processes: Identifies the expected activities that produce the desired outcome
Mediating variable: The variable or mechanism through which an intervention works to impact the outcome in a study.
Meta-analysis: A process of using quantitative methods to summarize the results from the multiple studies, obtained and critically reviewed using a rigorous process (to minimize bias) for identifying, appraising, and synthesizing studies to answer a specific clinical question and draw conclusions about the data gathered, to gain a summary statistic (i.e., a measure of a single effect) that represents the effect of the intervention across the multiple studies.
Method: The theory of how a certain type of research should be carried out (i.e., strategy, approach, process/overall design and logic of design). Researchers often subsume description of techniques under a discussion of method.
MeSH: MEDLINE®’s controlled vocabulary; Medical Subject Headings
Micro level change: Change at a small-scale level (e.g., units within a local healthcare organization or small groups of individuals)
N
Narrative analysis: A term that refers to distinct styles of generating, interpreting, and representing data as stories that provide insights into life experiences.
National Guidelines Clearinghouse: A comprehensive database of up-to-date English language evidence-based clinical practice guidelines, developed in partnership with the American Medical Association, the American Association of Health Plans, and the Association for Healthcare Research and Quality
Naturalistic research: Commitment to the study of phenomena in their naturally occurring settings (contexts).
News embargo: A restriction on the release of any media information about the findings from a study before they are published in a journal article
NHS Economic Evaluation Database: A register of published economic evaluations of healthcare interventions
Nominated/snowball sample: A sample obtained with the help of informants already enrolled in the study.
Non-experimental study design: A study design in which data are collected but whose purpose is not to test the effects of an intervention or treatment on selected outcomes
Non-homogeneous sample: A sample comprised of individuals with dissimilar characteristics.
Null hypothesis: There is no relationship between or among study variables.
Number needed to harm (NNH): The number of clients, who, if they received an intervention, would result in one additional person being harmed (i.e., having a bad outcome) compared to the patients in the control arm of a study.
Number needed to treat (NNT): The number of people who would need to receive the experimental therapy to prevent one bad outcome or cause one additional good outcome.
O
Observation continuum: A range of social roles encompassed by participant-observation and ranging from complete observer to complete participant at the extremes.
Observer drift: A decrease in inter-rater reliability
Occurrence rate: The rate at which an event occurs
Odds ratio (OR): The odds of a case patient (i.e., someone in the intervention group) being exposed (a/b) divided by the odds of a control patient being exposed (c/d).
Opinion Leaders: Individuals who are typically highly knowledgeable and well respected in a system; as such, they are often able to influence change.
Ordinal data: Variables that have ordered categories with intervals that cannot be quantified (e.g., mild, moderate, or severe anxiety).
Outcomes management: The use of process and outcomes data to coordinate and influence actions and processes of care that contribute to patient achievement of targeted behaviors or desired effects.
Outcomes measurement: A generic term used to describe the collection and reporting of information about an observed effect in relation to some care delivery process or health promotion action.
Outcomes research: The use of rigorous scientific methods to measure the effect of some intervention on some outcome(s).
P
Paradigm: A world view or set of beliefs, assumptions, and values that guides all types of research by identifying where the researcher stands on issues related to the nature of reality (ontology), relationship of the researcher to the researched (epistemology), role of values (axiology), use of language (rhetoric), and process (methodology) (Creswell, 1998).
Participant-observation: Observation and participation in everyday activities in study informants’ natural settings.
Participatory Action Research (PAR): A form of action
research that is participatory in nature (i.e., researchers and participants
collaborate in problem definition, choice of methods, data analysis,
and use of findings); democratic in principle; and reformatory in impulse
(i.e., has as its objective the empowerment of persons through the process
of constructing and using their own knowledge as a form of consciousness
raising with the potential for promoting social action
Patient preferences: Values the patient holds, concerns
the patient has regarding the clinical decision/treatment/situation,
choices the patient has/prefers regarding the clinical decision/treatment/situation
Peer reviewed: Project critiqued by a team of reviewers who has expertise in the subject
Phenomenologic: Pertaining to the study of essences (i.e., meaning structures) intuited or grasped through descriptions of lived experience.
Phenomenological reduction: An intellectual process involving reflection, imagination, and intuition.
PICO format: A process in which clinical questions are phrased in a manner that yields the most relevant information; P=patient population; I=Intervention of interest; C=Comparison intervention or status; O=Outcome.
Power: The ability of a study design to detect existing relationships between or among variables
Power analysis: Procedure used for determining the sample size needed for a study
Prevalence: Refers to the persons in the at-risk population who have the outcome or disorder in a given “snapshot in time.”
Principal investigator (PI): The lead person who is responsible and accountable for the scientific integrity of a study as well as the oversight of all elements in the conduct of that study.
Prognosis: The likelihood of a certain outcome
Purposeful/theoretical sample: A sample intentionally selected in accordance with the needs of the study.
p value: The statistical test of the assumption that there is no difference between an experimental intervention and a control. P values indicate the probability of an event given the assumption that there is no true difference. By convention a p value of 0.05 is considered a statistically significant result.
Q
Qualitative data analysis: A variety of techniques that are used to move back and forth between data and ideas throughout the course of the research.
Qualitative data management: The act of designing systems to organize, catalogue, code, store, and retrieve data. System design influences, in turn, how the researcher approaches the task of analysis.
Qualitative description: Description that “entails a kind of interpretation that is low-inference [close to the “facts”], or likely to result in easier consensus [about the “facts”] among researchers (Sandelowski, 2000b, p.335).”
Qualitative evaluation: A general term covering a variety of approaches to evaluating programs, projects, policies, etc. using qualitative research techniques.
Qualitative studies: Research that involves the collection of data in non-numeric form such as personal interviews, usually with the intention of describing a phenomenon.
Quantitative research: The investigation of phenomena using manipulation of numeric data with statistical analysis. Can be descriptive, predictive, or causal.
Quantitative studies: Research that collects data in numeric form and emphasizes precise measurement of variables; often conducted in the form of rigorously controlled studies.
Quasi-experiments: A type of experimental design that tests the effects of an intervention or treatment but lacks one or more characteristics of a true experiment (e.g., random assignment; a control or comparison group).
R
Random error: Measurement error that occurs without a pattern, without purpose or intent.
Random sampling: Selecting subjects to participate in a study by using a random strategy (e.g., tossing a coin); in this method of selecting subjects, every subject has an equal chance of being selected.
Random assignment (also called randomization): The use of a strategy to randomly assign subjects to the experimental or control groups (e.g., tossing a coin).
Randomized block design: A type of control strategy used in an experimental design that places subjects in equally distributed study groups based on certain characteristics (e.g., age) so that each study group will be similar prior to introduction of the intervention or treatment.
Randomized controlled clinical trial: A true experiment, the strongest design to support cause and effect relationships, in which subjects are randomly assigned to control and experimental groups.
Randomized controlled trials (RCTs): The strongest type of experimental design (i.e., one that delivers an intervention or treatment) in which subjects are randomly assigned to experimental and control groups
Ratio data: The highest level of data; data that has quantified intervals on an infinite scale in which there are equal distances between points and a meaningful zero point (e.g., ounces of water; height); often referred to as continuous data
Reference population: Those individuals in the past, present, and future to whom the study results can be generalized.
Relative risk (RR): Measures the strength of association and is the risk of the outcome in the exposed group (Re) divided by the risk of the outcome in the unexposed group (Ru). RR is used in prospective studies such as RCTs and cohort studies
Reliability: The consistency of an instrument in measuring the underlying construct.
Reliability coefficients: A measure of an instrument’s reliability (e.g., often computed with a Cronbach’s alpha)
Reliability of study findings: Whether or not the effects of a study have sufficient influence on practice, clinically and statistically; that is the results can be counted on to make a difference when clinicians apply them to their practice.
Reliable measures: Those that consistently and accurately measure the construct of interest
Representation: Part of the analytic process that raises the issue of providing a truthful portrayal of what the data represent (e.g., essence of an experience; cultural portrait) that will be meaningful to its intended audience.
Research design meeting: A planning meeting held for the purpose of designing a study and strategizing about potential funding as well as the roles of all investigators.
Research subjects review board (RSRB): Often referred to as an institutional review board (IRB); a group of individuals who review a study before it can be conducted to determine the benefits and risks of conducting the research to study participants.
Research Utilization: The use of some portion of research,
typically from a single study, in practice that is similar to the manner
in which it was used in the original study.
Risk: The probability that a person (currently free from a disease)
will develop a disease at some point.
Risk ratio: See relative risk
Rules of evidence: See levels of evidence
S
Saturation: The point at which categories of data are full and data collection ceases to provide new information.
Saturation level: The level at which a searcher no longer finds any new references, but instead, is familiar and knowledgeable with the literature.
Semiotics: The theory and study of signs and symbols applied to the analysis of systems of patterned communication.
Semi-structured interviews: Formal interviews that provide more interviewer control and question format structure but retain a conversational tone and allow informants to answer in their own ways.
Sensitivity: The probability of a diagnostic test finding disease among those who have the disease or the proportion of people with disease who have a positive test result (true positive).
SnNout: When a test has a high Sensitivity, a Negative result rules out the diagnosis
Sociolinguistics: The study of the use of speech in social life.
Solomon four group design: A type of experimental study design that uses a before-after design for the first two experimental groups and an after-only design for the second experimental and control groups so that it can separate the effects of pre-testing the subjects on the outcome measure(s).
Specificity: The probability of a diagnostic test finding NO disease among those who do NOT have the disease or the proportion of people free of a disease who have a negative test (true negatives).
SpPin: When a test has a high Specificity a Positive result rules in the diagnosis.
Standard Error: An estimate due to sampling error of the deviation of the sample mean from the true population mean.
Statistical significance: That the results of statistical analysis of data are unlikely to have been caused by chance, at a pre-determined level of probability.
Stratification: A strategy that divides the study population into two or more subpopulations and then samples separately from each.
Structured, open-ended interviews: Formal interviews with little flexibility in the way that questions are asked but with question formats that allow informants to respond on their own terms (e.g., “What does.... mean to you?” “How do you feel/think about...?”).
Symbolic interaction: Theoretical perspective on how social reality is created by human interaction through ongoing, taken-for-granted processes of symbolic communication.
Systematic review: A summary of evidence, typically conducted by an expert or expert panel on a particular topic, that uses a rigorous process (to minimize bias) for identifying, appraising, and synthesizing studies to answer a specific clinical question and draw conclusions about the data gathered.
T
Techniques: Tools or procedures used to generate or analyze data (e.g., interviewing, observation, standardized tests and measures, constant comparison, document analysis, content analysis, statistical analysis). Techniques are method-neutral and may be used, as appropriate, in any research design – either qualitative or quantitative.
Test-retest reliability: A test of an instrument’s stability over time assessed by repeated measurements over time
Textword: A word that is not a part of the database’s controlled vocabulary/thesaurus. Textwords are searched only in titles and abstracts. Sometimes called keywords.
Thematic analysis: Systematic description of recurring ideas or topics (themes) that represent different, yet related, aspects of a phenomenon
Theoretical Framework: The basis upon which a study is guided; its purpose is to provide a context for selecting the study’s variables, including how they relate to one another as well as to guide the development of an intervention in experimental studies
Theoretical generalizability: See transferability
Theoretical sampling: Decision making, while concurrently collecting and analyzing data, about what further data and data sources are needed to develop the emerging theory.
Theoretical sensitivity: A conceptual process to accompany techniques for generating grounded theory (Glaser, 1978).
Theoretic interest: A desire to know or understand it better
Thick description: Description that does more than describe human experiences by beginning to interpret what they mean, involving detailed reports of what people say and do, incorporating the textures and feelings of the physical and social worlds in which people move, with reference to that context (i.e., an interpretation of what their words and actions mean)
Transferability: Demonstrated by information that is sufficient for a research consumer to determine whether findings are meaningful to other people in similar situations (analytic or theoretical vs. statistical generalizability)
True experiment: A strongest type of experimental design for testing cause and effect relationships: true experiments possess three characteristics: (1) a treatment or intervention; (2) a control or comparison group; and (3) random assignment
Type 1 error: Mistakenly rejecting the null hypothesis when it is actually true.
Type 2 error: Mistakenly accepting (not rejecting) the null hypothesis when it is false.
U
Unstructured, open-ended interviews: Informal conversations that allow informants the fullest range of possibilities to describe their experiences, thoughts, and feelings.
V
Validity of study findings: Whether or not the results of the study were obtained via sound scientific methods.
Valid measures: Those that measure the construct that they are intended to measure (e.g., an anxiety measure truly measures anxiety, not depression)
Volunteer sample: A sample obtained by solicitation or advertising for participants who meet study criteria.
Y
Yield: The number of hits obtained by a literature search; this can be per database and/or total yield; there can be several levels of yield, e.g., first yield and final yield, that is, only those studies that were kept for review.
All Cochrane definitions came from:
http://www.update-software.com/publications/cochrane/
1 Melnyk, B. & Fineout-Overholt, E.
(2005). Evidence-based
Practice in Nursing and Healthcare: A Guide to Best Practice. Philadelphia:
Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.
