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Lecture 1
• Introduction to course
• Introduction to measurement
Pre-requisite (or co-requisite)
• 606
• 607
• or permission of instructor
Format
• Lectures
• Guest lectures
• Small group discussions/presentations– group and room assignments to be posted on
web-page
• Information on web-page– Detailed schedule on web-page– Course objectives on web-page
Web-page
• Detailed schedule
• Course objectives
• Lectures
• Small group exercises – guidelines– group assignments
• Assignments
• Other?
Readings
• Course packs:– 1) required readings– 2 additional readings– more to come!
• Available at Copies Nova – (corner of Sherbrook and Peel)
Assessment
• Assignments (20%)– 4, graded by TA
• Paper critiques (10%)– 5
• To be posted on web-page with due date
• Work handed in late will not be accepted!
Assessment (cont)
• Mid-term exam (30%)– Monday Nov 10, 11:00 - 12:30
• Final exam (40%)– Monday Dec 15, 9:00 - 12:00
Introduction to measurement
• Purposes of measurement
• Types and sources of data
• Types of variables
• Questionnaires
• Types of scale
Purposes of measurement
• Clinical– screening, diagnosis, monitoring in individuals
• Surveillance – planning and monitoring public health and
health care in populations
• Research– measurement of determinants, outcomes,
confounders/modifiers
Examples of requirements by purpose of measurement
• Clinical– discrimination between health and disease
relevant to management
• Surveillance – valid measurement of trends
• Research– maximize validity of study results
Sources of data
• Primary vs secondary
• Clinical observations
• Questionnaires and interviews
• Reportable diseases and registries
• Health records
• Administrative databases (hospital discharges, claims, medication prescription)
• Vital statistics
Examples of measures: for discussion
• Use of health services during past year (doctor visits, hospitalization)
• Use of alcohol and drugs (current and lifetime)
• Blood pressure (current and during past 5 years)
• Mood/depression (current and lifetime)
Types of variables (level of measurement)
• Continuous (syn. dimensional, quantitative, interval)
• Categorical (discrete)– dichotomous, binary– polychotomous
• nominal
• ordinal
What level of measurement?
• Country of birth
• Blood pressure
• Diagnosis of SARS
• Level of pain
Planning questionnaires
• Open-ended or close-ended
• Level of measurement
• Choice of response scale
Open-ended question
10. What do you like the MOST about St. Mary’s?
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
Question wording:Open- vs close-ended questions
• Close-ended questions– used most frequently– easier to analyze
• Open-ended questions– useful in exploratory research– basis for developing more structured questions in
later research– analysis more time-consuming, requires qualitative
methods
Alternative formatsD.O.B. _____/_____/________
d m yyyy
Age: __________
Age-group:
1 less than 652 65 – 743 75 –844 85 or older
Nominal scale
What is your current marital status?
1 Single (never married)2 Married (including common-law)3 Separated4 Divorced5 Widowed
Ordinal scales
1. Mobility
0 I have (s/he has) no problems in walking about
1 I have (s/he has) some problems in walking about
2 I am (s/he is) confined to bed
Disadvantages of categorical scales
• Loss of information
• Loss of precision
Continuous response scales in questionnaires
• Visual analogue scale
• Adjectival scale
• Likert scale
• Semantic differential scale
Visual analogue scale
Now, to help people say how good or bad theirhealth state is, let’s say the best state you canimagine is 100 and the worst state you can imagineis 0.
In your opinion, how good or bad is your/his/herown health today - please mark on the line below.
0 ___________________________________ 100
Likert scalePlease circle the answer that corresponds best toyour opinion.
1. You are treated with respect
Totally Agree No opinion Disagree Totallyagree disagree
1 2 3 4 5