Research Methods for Medical and Health Studies

Research is a journey for information through a determined hunt or examination or experimentation that went for the disclosure and elucidation of new learning (WHO, 2001). It implies disclosure of new data or the use of existing data in a novel manner and the requirement for ‘evidence’. It is essential for medical doctors and practitioners to gain basic knowledge on how to conduct the research before starting the project.

More Specifically, Research Involves:

# A trained way to deal with request

# A strategy for testing and generating theories

# A method to test our hypothesis

# A systematic way of defining and answering research questions

At the end of the course the participants will be able to:

· To understand the basics of medical research

· To understand different types of study design (Observational and experimental)

· To identify the overall process of designing a research study from its proposal to its report.

· To be familiar with ethical issues in medical research especially in clinical trials

· To define the meaning of a variable, and to be able to identify independent, dependent variables.

· To know the various types of sampling methods and how to choose study samples

· To know how sample size is determined in medical research as it is an essential step in any scientific research