Research Design
For many people who are
conducting lifestyle surveys, the decisions about
'research design' will already have been taken (in some
cases albeit implicitly). This page provides
background information about research design, to help
users to understand the type of research they are
conducting.
There are 2 key questions to ask when considering the
design of research: the type of research to be conducted
and whether the research is going to be exploratory,
descriptive, or causal. Types of Research to be
Conducted
What
are we going to do to the subjects of the research - Observational or Experimental?
Observational research collects
information on subjects, but does nothing to affect them. Examples
include censuses, surveys, and cohort studies. Experimental
research is where the researcher affects (controls) what happens to the
subjects and then investigates the effects of the intervention.
This type of research is usually conducted to make comparisons between
groups.
When are we going to collect the data about
the subjects - Prospective or Retrospective?
Prospective means
that subjects are recruited and data collected from
the start of study about
events which are forward in time. Retrospective means
that information
is collected about past events, and may come from existing
sources. Experimental research is prospective, whereas
observational research may be either prospective or
retrospective.
How many times are we going to collect
information from the subjects - Cross-sectional or Longitudinal
In cross-sectional research,
individuals
or subjects are observed or surveyed only once.
However, in longitudinal research, we want to investigate
changes over time, possibly in relation to an intervention,
and so observations or surveys are conducted on more than one
occasion.
Exploratory, Descriptive or Causal?
The type of research we
conduct depends to some extent on how much we already
know about our subjects - and the effect of our
intervention if we have one.
- Exploratory –
is where the subject area is being
explored; we probably don’t yet understand very much about
the subject.
- Descriptive – is where we understand the
subject area more and want to describe what is happening
- Causal – here we are looking for ‘cause and
effect’ in the subject area
What type of design is a Lifestyle Survey?
A lifestyle survey is:
- Observational
- Retrospective
- Cross-Sectional
(although frequently, cross-sectional
surveys are undertaken on an annual or bi-annual
basis, to provide measures over time)
- Descriptive
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