Descriptive Research

1. Descriptive Research • Descriptive Research Purpose • Documents/Describes • Behaviors/conditions/effects • In individuals / in groups • It is often tied to exploratory research (which finds relationships) • Descriptive Research often foundational for: • Classification • Identifying relevant variables • Generating new research questions

2. Descriptive Research • In Developmental Research • Description of developmental change • Sequencing of behaviors • …..to develop a clear picture of those we treat • …..in order to have valid interpretation of outcomes • Longitudinal • Cross-sectional • Interesting example from 1759 in P & W

3. Descriptive Research • Normative data • “Typical” or “standard” • Reference data • Why is the validity of these norms important to us? • These data are still in great need of being generated • For different populations • Age • Gender • Functional limitation • Pathology

4. Descriptive Research • Qualitative Research • Based on the patient’s perspective • Seeks to describe • complexity of humanity • how individuals perceive themselves • within a specific social context • Why is this important? • Evidence based practice • Clinical judgment and literature support • In context of patient’s circumstances and values

5. Descriptive Research • Qualitative Research • Not a dirty word • Is a research method if tied to: • Understanding a phenomenon • Explaining phenomenon • Developing a theory about a phenomenon • Approaches in Qualitative Research • Phenomenology • Ethnography • Grounded Theory (Example p 309) These three collectively known as naturalistic inquiry

6. Descriptive Research • Qualitative Research Data Collection • Observation • Non-participant • Participant • Interview • May be structured • Should be flexible to allow for circumstances • This is different from clinical interview • Clinical interview seeks diagnosis • Qualitative interview seeks____________________________? • Data analysis • Sift, code, sort, classify, index, connect, etc • Highly knowledge and skill driven!

7. Descriptive Research • Reliability and Validity • Measurement Error Concept • Evaluated with judgments vs. numerical equivalency • Seek to establish “trustworthiness” • Triangulation with different data sources • Audit trail that another reader/researcher can follow • Sampling • Purposeful, in order to seek informative subjects • Theoretical • Sampling changes as… • …theories emerge from the data

8. Descriptive Research • Case Studies • In depth description of condition or treatment • Often of an individual (almost always in PT literature) • Could be of a group • Purpose is to: • Understand unusual patient condition • Describe a new/innovative/creative application of treatment • Generate a theory • Test a theory • Provide future research questions • Most practical, least rigorous • Validity issues, but still very useful

9. Surveys and Questionnaires • Methods for collecting data by self report • Interview • Researcher asks questions • In depth • Costly • Survey • Researcher prepares the questions • Efficient • Prone to misunderstanding of questions

10. Surveys and Questionnaires • Overall research question • Guiding questions delineate objectives • Helps ensure each question is useful to overall aim • Hypotheses • Set up an outline • Compare /review existing instruments • Design your instrument • Draft/review/draft/review as needed • Pilot test and revise • Select your sample • Contact your sample

11. Surveys and Questionnaires • Constructing survey questions • Open ended questions • When not sure of all possible answers • May help design instrument • Closed ended questions • Should be exhaustive and mutually exclusive • Uniform and easy to code • Limits response; may not capture essence of subject • Grid is efficient when format of several questions the same • May rank order a series of responses

12. Surveys and Questionnaires • Wording Questions • Simple and unambiguous • Single question • Consider impact of time/frequency questions • “Frame” sensitive questions to improve response • Scales • Categorical • Continuous • Summative • Cumulative

13. Surveys and Questionnaires • Categorical – Nominal data • Continuous • Ordinal data collapsed to ranks • Likert Scale does this • Interval, ratio data • Summative • Total score reflects a sum of the individual items scores • May reflect different underlying abilities/behaviors • Likert Scale (SD, D, N, A, SA) • Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) for pain vey common • Cumulative • Score designed to indicate increasing ability • A 5 indicates they answered yes to Q 5, Q4, Q3, Q2, Q1

14. Surveys and Questionnaires • Semantic differential • Scales for pairs of words in three dimensions • Evaluation • Activity • Potency • Good – bad • Slow - fast • Weak - _______? • Visual Analog Scale • Usually 100mm in length • Anchored by extremes of the characteristic • Subject marks – you measure • One dimensional

15. Surveys and Questionnaires • Rasch Analysis • Statistically manipulates ordinal data • Creates a linear measure on an interval scale • Must: • Reflect a uni-dimensional concept (i.e. walking) • Be hierarchical • Have scale that measures change within or across subjects • Functional Independence Measure (FIM) is an example • 18 item scale of motor and cognitive function • Describes amount of assistance for daily living (ADLs)

16. Surveys and Questionnaires • Q-sort • Characterization through rank ordering • Build a distribution based on normality • 11 piles • Pile 1 and 10 with the least items • Pile 5 with the most items • Put the high and low score on each extreme (pile 0 and 10) • Put the next highest scores and next lowest scores (1 and 9) • Rearrange the items until the pile reflects your ranking • Delphi survey • Experts assemble qualities/behaviors • Continues until Consensus reached about the rankings

17. Surveys and Questionnaires • Analysis? • Collate • Code responses if appropriate • Perform Descriptive Statistics • Frequencies/percentages (categorical data) • Relationships (Chi squared frequently used) • Informed consent? • You are not touching the subject • Needed? • Not needed?