Understanding Clinical Papers

Understanding Clinical Papers is a popular and well established introduction to reading clinical papers. It unravels the process of evidence-based practice, using real papers to illustrate how to understand and evaluate published research, and provides clear explanations of important research-related topics.

Preface to the First Edition vii

Preface to the Third Edition ix

PART I SETTING THE SCENE: WHO DID WHAT, AND WHY 1

1 Some Preliminaries 3

2 The Abstract and Introduction 7

3 The Aims and Objectives 14

PART II DESIGN MATTERS: WHAT TYPE OF STUDY IS IT? 21

4 Descriptive Studies: Qualitative 23

5 Descriptive Studies: Quantitative 29

6 Analytic Studies 35

7 Intervention Studies 42

8 Mixed Methods Research 50

PART III THE CAST: FINDING OUT ABOUT THE SUBJECTS OF THE RESEARCH 53

9 The Research Setting 55

10 Populations and Samples in Quantitative Research 59

11 The Sample in Qualitative Research 63

12 Identifying and Defining Cases 67

13 Controls and Comparisons 70

PART IV ESTABLISHING THE FACTS: STARTING WITH BASIC OBSERVATIONS 75

14 Identifying the Characteristics of Quantitative Data 77

15 Summarising the Characteristics of Quantitative Data 84

16 Identifying and Summarising the Characteristics of Qualitative Data 90

17 Measuring the Characteristics of Participants: Quantitative 93

18 Measuring the Characteristics of Participants: Qualitative 99

19 Measuring the Characteristics of Measures 102

20 Measurement Scales 106

21 Exploring and Explaining: Topic Guides 118

PART V ESTABLISHING MORE OF THE FACTS: SOME COMMON WAYS OF DESCRIBING RESULTS 121

22 Fractions, Proportions, and Rates 123

23 Risks and Odds 125

24 Ratios of Risks and Odds 128

PART VI ANALYSING THE DATA: ESTIMATION AND HYPOTHESIS TESTING 135

25 Confidence Intervals for Means, Proportions, and Medians 137

26 Confidence Intervals for Ratios 143

27 Testing Hypotheses – the p-Value 147

PART VII ANALYSING THE DATA: MULTIVARIABLE METHODS 161

28 Measuring Association 163

29 Measuring Agreement 170

30 Linear Regression 175

31 Logistic Regression 185

32 Measuring Survival 190

33 Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis 196

34 Analysing Qualitative Data 206

35 Results in Text and Tables 211

36 Results in Pictures 219

37 The Discussion and Conclusions 227

References 231

Index 239

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.