Validity Of Research Methods Research Articles

Nature Therapy: An Essential Prescription for Health

Nature Therapy: An Essential Prescription for Health

Frequency of medication error in pediatric anesthesia: A systematic review and meta-analytic estimate.

Clinical evidence shows that pediatric anesthesia patients are subject to a higher rate of life-threatening medical errors than their adult counterparts. Medication error in adult anesthesia is estimated to occur to 1 in 133 anesthetic administrations, but such a figure has not been determined for pediatric anesthesia patients. Individual studies of medication error in pediatric anesthesia have ranged from rates of 0.01% to 1.92% of anesthetic uses. The present study is a systematic review that employs a meta-analytic estimate to determine the rate of medication error in pediatric anesthesia. A systematic review of the literature on pediatric anesthesia medication error was conducted using Medline, Cochrane Database, PROSPERO, and Clinicaltrials.gov. A meta-analytic estimate was used to determine the medication error rate for all of the included studies. Subgroup sensitivity analysis was used to evaluate possible sources of heterogeneity in included studies. Of the 433 initially screened records, 13 studies met inclusion criteria. Meta-analytic estimate of medication error rate across all studies was 0.08% (95% CI 0.05%-0.10%), or 1 out of 1250 anesthetics. Ten different countries were represented in the studies. Sample size of anesthetics reported on ranged from 296 to 2316635. Data collecting periods ranged from 3months to 15years. Six included studies individually reported higher rates of medication error in patients under 1year of age. The present systematic review revealed a medication error rate of 1 per 1250 anesthetic administrations in pediatric anesthesia. This result is significantly lower than would be expected given reported rates of medication error in adult anesthesia, which raises questions regarding the validity of research methods and reporting of medication error in pediatric anesthesia. Future investigations of medication error should employ methodologies other than self-reporting of error, such as retrospective chart review.

Psycho-oncology: Overview, obstacles and opportunities.

Worldwide, psychological and social issues in cancer were not the subject of scientific inquiry until the past two decades. Since then, a new subspecialty of oncology has evolved, psycho-oncology. It addresses two dimensions of cancer: the emotional responses of patients at all stages of disease, as well as their families and caretakers (psychosocial); and the pyschological, social and behavioral factors that may influence cancer morbidity and mortality (psychobiological). Obstacles to development have been the facts of small numbers of clinicians and investigators worldwide and the few valid assessment instruments and research methods available to the biomedical community. These obstacles are increasingly giving way to the louder demand of the public for maximal quality of life in cancer care. Psycho-oncology is attaining subspeciality status by presently bringing a set of clinical skills in counseling, behavioral and social interventions to oncology, by providing training curricula which teach basic knowledge and skills in the area, and through creating a body of research and scholarly information about clinically relevant issues in the care of patients with cancer. Since it is increasingly recognized that psychological, social and behavioral variables influence treatment outcome, attention will likely to continue to increase. The field must meet the challenges of the 1990's in psychosocial care and availability of services, support for training clinicians and investigators in psycho-oncology, and implementation of an exciting research agenda. The focus of new research will encourage collaborative investigations combining biological and psychosocial variables, quality of life research in clinical trials, controlled studies of psychotherapeutic, behavioral and psychopharmacologic research, and crosscultural studies that will examine differences in prevention and detection, health care systems, alternative therapies and meta analyses.

Rethinking expeditions: On critical expeditionary practice

The expedition’s complicity in the imperial project of conquest, extraction and settlement has placed it as an object of critique, but largely discredited its significance as a valid research method in the critical social sciences. Yet dismissing the expedition merely as an imperial remnant risks ignoring more nuanced histories that bear no resemblance to myths of conquest and masculine heroics. Instead, this paper considers the expedition as a malleable practice that can be critically appropriated and manipulated in ways that retain and further the critique of violence and knowledge production, while also experimenting with creative alternatives to some of its conventions.

The Gap in Medical Informatics and Continuing Education Between the United States and China: A Comparison of Conferences in 2016.

BackgroundChina launched its second health reform in 2010 with considerable investments in medical informatics (MI). However, to the best of our knowledge, research on the outcomes of this ambitious undertaking has been limited.ObjectiveOur aim was to understand the development of MI and the state of continuing education in China and the United States from the perspective of conferences.MethodsWe conducted a quantitative and qualitative analysis of four MI conferences in China and two in the United States: China Medical Information Association Annual Symposium (CMIAAS), China Hospital Information Network Annual Conference (CHINC), China Health Information Technology Exchange Annual Conference (CHITEC), China Annual Proceeding of Medical Informatics (CPMI) versus the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) and Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). The scale, composition, and regional distribution of attendees, topics, and research fields for each conference were summarized and compared.ResultsCMIAAS and CPMI are mainstream academic conferences, while CHINC and CHITEC are industry conferences in China. Compared to HIMSS 2016, the meeting duration of CHITEC was 3 versus 5 days, the number of conference sessions was 132 versus 950+, the number of attendees was 5000 versus 40,000+, the number of vendors was 152 versus 1400+, the number of subforums was 12 versus 230, the number of preconference education symposiums and workshops was 0 versus 12, and the duration of preconference educational symposiums and workshops was 0 versus 1 day. Compared to AMIA, the meeting duration of Chinese CMIAAS was 2 versus 5 days, the number of conference sessions was 42 versus 110, the number of attendees was 200 versus 2500+, the number of vendors was 5 versus 75+, and the number of subforums was 4 versus 10. The number of preconference tutorials and working groups was 0 versus 29, and the duration of tutorials and working group was 0 versus 1.5 days.ConclusionsGiven the size of the Chinese economy and the substantial investment in MI, the output in terms of conferences remains low. The impact of conferences on continuing education to professionals is not significant. Chinese researchers and professionals should approach MI with greater rigor, including validated research methods, formal training, and effective continuing education, in order to utilize knowledge gained by other countries and to expand collaboration.

T57 - Khat abuse as risk factor for development of psychotic symptoms in trauma patients. A feasibility study for further genetico-epidemiological studies in the GGFRC, ethiopia

Background The Jimma University in southwestern Ethiopia has a unique health and demographic surveillance system called „Gilgel Gibe Field Research Center” (GGFRC) with a catchment area of about 50.000 people. In this setting, we studied the effect of khat use as risk factor for the development and the stability of psychotic symptoms among young men in the community. Our aim was to validate pilot data by testing the hypothesis, whether objective biological data on khat abuse are related in a meaningful way to behavioral self-reports of study participants and psychiatric symptom presentation assessed by trained interviewers. We assumed that khat alkaloids in urine samples of respondents are related to a higher probability of psychotic symptom presentation, especially in the subgroup with high trauma load. Furthermore, we wanted to demonstrate the reliability and validity of research methods that are necessary for future genetic epidemiological studies, i.e. the validity and reliability of pharmacological screening tests as well as assessments performed by trained local interviewers. Methods In this prospective study, trained local interviewers screened a representative cohort of young men twice within a period of nine months (T1: dry season, N=852, T3: rainy season, N=693) to determine the presence and stability of distinct psychiatric symptoms (CIDI) and to assess traumatic experiences (LEC-5). As part of the screening, urine samples were collected and analyzed for khat alkaloids by immunoassay tests for amphetamine. In a clinical validation interview (T2, N=126) mental health specialist reassessed the psychiatric symptom presentation (BPRS) in a randomly selected subgroup of 126 individuals of those persons who had been screened at T1. The validation study took also urine of this subgroup in order to validate the urine screening by a more extensive analysis of khat alkaloids (HPLC). Results Our results on the association between biological objective data and information on psychiatric symptoms assessed by interviews were related in a meaningful way: The proportion of khat-related psychotic symptoms was highest among respondents with positive khat tests and with high trauma load. This tendency was strongest during rainy season (T3) where the market availability and the use of khat was higher (Chi2 = 14.800, df 1, p Discussion By showing these meaningful variations, this pilot study suggest that important theories on the development of psychosis can be further studied in epidemiological and longitudinal designs among khat users. Our project can be seen as a pilot and feasibility study to prepare a comprehensive population-based genetico-epidemiological study on various gene-environment interactions that should be carried out in the very next future. The infrastructure of GGFRC offers us a unique opportunity to build collectives of multiple-thousand people in a shortest period of time and to perform genetic studies as they have not yet been taken in Africa in this form so far. The population is ideally suited to study the impact of polygenic risk profiles of various psychiatric disorders on behavioral traits and their interaction with environment.

Reconstructing the social constructionist view of emotions: from language to culture, including nonhuman culture

AbstractThe thesis of social constructionism is that emotions are shaped by culture and society. I build on this insight to show that existing social constructionist views of emotions, while providing valid research methods, overly restrict the scope of the social constructionist agenda. The restriction is due to the ontological assumption that social construction is indissociable from language. In the first part, I describe the details of the influential social constructionist views of Averill and Harré. Drawing on recent theorizing in psychology, I suggest that their fixation on language makes these approaches inadequate to the analysis of the social construction of human emotional experience. In the second part, I extend the argument to other species, suggesting that these social constructionist views are incapable of accommodating the fact, ascertained by primatologists, that animals have cultures, and that part of animal culture concerns the social molding of their emotions. I conclude that a reconstructed social constructionism should be regarded not as inimical to, but as part and parcel of, a nonreductive biology of emotions.

Preliminary exploration of the Measurement of Diverse Adolescent Spirituality (MDAS) among Mexican youth

ABSTRACTIn the current article we propose and offer a preliminary test of an ecologically sensitive theoretical and methodological framework for understanding diverse adolescent spiritual development. The study summarizes the initial stages of development of the Measurement of Diverse Adolescent Spirituality (MDAS) that assesses three dimensions of spirituality: transcendence, fidelity, and contribution. We report our procedures and findings from an initial effort to contextualize the measure and validate the resulting scales with youth in Tijuana, Mexico. In the current study, 391 (211 females, M age = 13.78 years old) Mexican youth completed a self-report survey including the MDAS and measures of prosocial tendencies, daily spiritual experiences, and intrinsic religious motivation. Exploratory and confirmatory factor models, reliability, and structural analysis affirm the MDAS as a valid and reliable multidimensional measure of adolescent spirituality within the tested sample. Implications for further study of adolescent spiritual development and culturally valid research methods are discussed.

Framing IxD knowledge

Interaction design (IxD) research cuts through many domains of HCI yet remains distinctive. There are convincing arguments that Research through Design (RtD) is a valid research method in the conce ...

The ‘ins and Outs’ of Sex Differences in Pathological Gambling

Decision-making plays a pivotal role in daily life as impairments in processes underlying decision-making often result in an inability to make profitable long-term decisions that incorporate expectations of future outcomes. In case of pathological gambling such impairments appear to be present as subjects continue to gamble despite the fact that this activity disrupts their personal, professional or financial life. Both from a research and treatment point of view, an important issue is whether differences between men and women exist in the tendency to engage in gambling as a leisure activity and to develop pathological gambling. I will discuss that differences between male and female subjects may exist regarding the trajectory towards pathological gambling: when considered in aggregate, there appears to be a (slightly) elevated risk for gambling problems or severity of gambling in men compared to women. These differences seem to be due to a complex interaction of genetic make-up, effects of the (social) environment on risk-taking behaviour, stress-related changes in risk-taking, and personality/information-processing characteristics related to decision-making. These different factors will be discussed. Future studies should address the interaction between these factors using among others ecologically valid research methods.

Evaluation of research methods to study domestic food preparation

Purpose – Domestic preparation practices influence the sensory properties and nutritional composition of food products. Information on the variability in actual domestic preparation practices is needed to assess the influence of applied conditions on the sensory and nutritional quality of food. The collection of such information requires a reliable, valid and practical research method. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Direct in-home observations, observations in a model-kitchen using cameras, and a self-reporting questionnaire were evaluated for reliability and validity, to study domestic food preparation practices by consumers. Broccoli preparation practices by Dutch consumers were checked by these three methods in this research paper. Findings – All three research methods were found to be test-retest, inter-observer, parallel-form reliable; and face, content and concurrent valid. However, the self-reporting questionnaire is the most practical research method that can be administered on a large number of respondents in a short time to capture the wide variations in preparation practices. Originality/value – Consumers can be assisted on domestic food preparation practices that reach their sensory preferences (e.g. texture, colour) as well as have health benefits on consumption.

USING CONCEPT MAPPING FOR ASSESSMENT IN SCIENCE EDUCATION

Conceptual acquisition is an important aspect of science education, especially with regard to committing things to long term memory. Three case studies were carried out to examine approaches to conceptual acquisition in science education. The aim of these studies was to determine whether concept mapping method is a valid research method. To answer the question, studies were developed. Two of them used animation to describe abstract topics in chemistry. The aim of the third study was to compare the differences in higher taxonomy concept maps, created in an allocated timeframe. The findings of the studies indicate that the use of voiced interactive animation without teacher explanation does not lend itself to superior concept acquisition. As a result of the study it was concluded that concept mapping as an assessment method provides a unique possibility to visualize the structure of students’ conceptual achievements. Based on the outcomes it is recommended concept mapping should be used more as an assessment or research method. Key words: assessment, concept mapping, animation, paper-based instruction, concepts.

Electronic health records in mental health research: a framework for developing valid research methods.

This Open Forum describes research methods to ensure high-quality health services research using electronic health records (EHRs) as a data source. The authors describe unique characteristics of EHRs that could introduce data inaccuracies into research, and they outline a framework for methods to evaluate the validity of EHR-derived data, including the development of data extraction rules and ways to validate those rules. The authors argue that the use of such methods will help ensure the validity of research using EHRs as a data source.

38th S.H. Foulkes Annual Lecture: Intimacy and Social Suffering in a Globalized World

How is intimacy possible in a globalized world—and how does the loss of intimacy effect societies as well as individuals? This is the central question of the following article.It is argued that sociology alone cannot find any convincing answers, because we need to understand the unconscious dynamics of global developments that undermine the human capacity to bond and to experience intimacy. Group analysis offers quite a unique position ‘on the edge’, that allows us to observe and to connect, to analyse and to understand not only patients, but also people and situations outside of the clinical world. In this sense it is social group analysis that turns out to be a valid research method and an approach that is capable of deciphering the ‘social unconscious’. An extensive case study out of a research project about transnational children in Ecuador (South America) and the story of Daqui are offered to show what is unconsciously at stake in a modern and globalized world, how much intimacy has degenerated already and how this can be understood in terms of group analysis.

SurveySignal

Experience sampling or ecological momentary assessment offers unique insights into how people think, feel, and behave in their natural environments. Because the method is able to capture situational variation as it happens in “real time,” experience sampling has become an increasingly popular method in social and personality, psychology, and beyond. With the ubiquity of smartphone ownership and the recent technical advances, conducting experience sampling studies on participants’ own devices has become increasingly easy to do. Here, we present one reliable, user-friendly, highly customizable, and cost-effective solution. The web-based application, SurveySignal, integrates the idea of using short message service (SMS) messages as signals and reminders, according to fixed or random schedules and of linking these signals to mobile surveys designed with common online survey software. We describe the method and customizable parameters and then present evaluation results from nine social–psychological studies conducted with SurveySignal (overall N = 1,852). Mean response rates averaged 77% and the median response delay to signals was 8 min. An experimental manipulation of the reminder signal in one study showed that installing a reminder SMS led to a 10% increase in response rates. Next to advantages and limitations of the SMS approach, we discuss how ecologically valid research methods such as smartphone experience sampling can enrich psychological research.

Request patterns by EFL Canarian Spanish students: Contrasting data by languages and research methods

This paper reports on empirical research, the purpose of which is fourfold. Firstly, we provide data regarding the realization patterns of requests made by Canarian Spanish students, both orally and in writing, in their mother tongue, a variety of Spanish. Secondly, since these undergraduates study English as a Foreign Language, we also examine the requests they make as non-native speakers of English. Two different methods were adopted for data elicitation, namely, open tape-recorded role-plays and Discourse Completion Tests (DCTs). Thirdly, we obtained a corpus of natural data through field notes taken from an array of real interactional situations in which different people spontaneously formulated requests. Finally, we try to determine to what extent the results in each phase differ depending on the method and the language used, thus contributing to the debate on the validity of research methods.

The Application of Data Mining to Explore Association Rules between Metabolic Syndrome and Lifestyles

This study used an efficient data mining algorithm, called DCIP (the data cutting and inner product method), to explore association rules between the lifestyles of factory workers in Taiwan and the metabolic syndrome. A total of 1,216 workers in four companies completed a lifestyle questionnaire. Results of the questionnaire survey were integrated into the workers' health examination reports to form an attribute database of the metabolic syndrome. Among the association rules derived by DCIP, 80% of those on the list of the top 15 highest support counts are corroborated by medical literature or by healthcare professionals. These findings prove that data mining is a valid and effective research method, and that larger sample sizes will likely produce more accurate associations connecting the metabolic syndrome to specific lifestyles. The rules already verified can serve as a reference guide for the health management of factory workers. The remaining 20%, while still lacking hard evidence, provide fertile ground for future research.

Employing a Critical Lens on Instructor Perceptions of Learning Games

Digital games like Where in the World is Carmen San Diego and Oregon Trail have been used to support learning since the 1980s. However, the last decade has seen games, simulations and virtual world use take firm hold of the academic imagination. There also has been a rapid expansion of sponsored, formal research, informal inquiry, and a growing body of theory supporting the use of learning games. As a result, several challenges to their use have been identified such as flaws in the games themselves, inadequate methods of assessment due to complex, confounding variables, and the perceptions of students and teachers. How then can academics develop valid research methods that recognize such challenges and allow for strong claims regarding the impacts of such tools through the lived digital and classroom game experiences of learners and teachers? This article presents a description of one research method that seeks to provide one possible solution called Critical CinéEthnography. It stems from a discursive, systems-oriented view of learning that explores the arguments and truth claims made by learners and teachers. Beyond examining in-game discourse alone, the method employs video capture of out-of-game discussion, artifacts, and body language that should allow researchers to build a complex picture of participant experiences that can be easily shared with academics and practitioners alike. For additional context, a sample study is presented that investigated teacher perceptions and use of learning games.

Results from experimental trials testing participant responses to White, Hispanic and Black suspects in high-fidelity deadly force judgment and decision-making simulations

Advance the methodological techniques used to examine the influence of suspect race and ethnicity on participant decisions to shoot in an experimental setting. After developing and testing a novel set of 60 realistic, high definition video deadly force scenarios based on 30 years of official data on officer-involved shootings in the United States, three separate experiments were conducted testing police (n = 36), civilian (n= 72) and military (n = 6) responses (n = 1,812) to the scenarios in high-fidelity computerized training simulators. Participants’ responses to White, Black and Hispanic suspects in potentially deadly situations were analyzed using a multi-level mixed methods strategy. Key response variables were reaction time to shoot and shooting errors. In all three experiments using a more externally valid research method than previous studies, we found that participants took longer to shoot Black suspects than White or Hispanic suspects. In addition, where errors were made, participants across experiments were more likely to shoot unarmed White suspects than unarmed Black or Hispanic suspects, and were more likely to fail to shoot armed Black suspects than armed White or Hispanic suspects. In sum, this research found that participants displayed significant bias favoring Black suspects in their decisions to shoot. The results of these three experiments challenge the results of less robust experimental designs and shed additional light on the broad issue of the role that status characteristics, such as race and ethnicity, play in the criminal justice system. Future research should explore the generalizability of these findings, determine whether bias favoring Black suspects is a consequence of administrative measures (e.g., education, training, policies, and laws), and identify the cognitive processes that underlie this phenomenon.

Acción colectiva y movimientos sociales en las redes digitales. Aspectos históricos y metodológicos

The shift in certain episodes of collective action towards the communications landscape and, more specifically, towards the new technology and digital media space, has led to the emergence of a complex variety of sociological phenomena, challenging some of the legacy of theoretical assumptions about the sociology of social movements. Moreover, the types of interaction and intertwining between these social movements and communication technology networks depends on multiple factors. Analysing them from this perspective allows historical periods to be distinguished and classified analytically. Similarly, the well known fact of the emergence of new forms of collective action and unconventional political participation entails the development of research methods that depart in some respects from those traditionally used. In this paper we aim to present some of the methodological tools of this virtualization of political protest, such as Audience Studies or Virtual Ethnography, which are valid sociological research methods to analyse some contemporary cases of collective action. One of the particularities of social movements using new digital media is the need to rethink the methodological approach to their comprehension due to their sporadic, dynamic and fluid nature.