Question

Where does Public Health Data come from and how can we evaluate the quality of the research?

Answer 1

Public health Data collection:

It  is an extremely challenging work which needs exhaustive planning, diligent work, understanding, determination and more to have the capacity to complete the assignment effectively. Data collection starts with figuring out what sort of data is needed, followed by the collection of a sample from a certain section of the population.

Normally we can gather data from two sources namely primary and secondary.

Primary data is gathered through perception or questionnaire review in a characteristic setting and are illustrations of data obtained in an uncontrolled situation. Secondary data is the data acquired from optional sources like magazines, books, documents, journals, reports, the web and more.

Data can be collected from a different sources.

Surveys: health data can be collected as part of surveys which can be population-based (i.e., designed to collect data from populations that are regionally or nationally representative) or they may be healthcare provider-based (i.e., designed to collect data from populations receiving health care services). i.e , sentinel surveillance systems have been established in health care sites such as hospitals, clinics or care providers’ offices to monitor key health events such as cases of influenza or cancer. The main objective of such provider-based surveillance systems is to obtain timely information on changes in the occurrence of a disease or condition that can inform preventive public health activities.

Registry :Data can also be collected using a registry. There are different types of registries including patient organization, medical and health ministry registries.Since patient organization registries typically have a minimal amount of health-related data they are generally more suited to facilitating communication and the distribution of educational material. Health ministry registries tend to be more public health oriented and national in scope. As most are designed to be representative of the entire population these registries are the best sources of data for common diseases and conditions.

Medical registries are designed to collect information about a disease such as the occurrence, type, extent and the treatment provided and can be very useful for public health surveillance of rare conditions. Data from medical registries can be used not only to monitor disease trends over the time and determine disease patterns in various populations but can also be used to guide planning and evaluation of disease control programs (e.g., determine whether prevention, screening, and treatment efforts are making a difference), help set priorities for allocating health resources and advance clinical, epidemiologic, and health services research in these disorders.

Evaluation of the quality of research:

Every study should include a description of the population of interest with  an explanation of the process used to select and gather data on study subjects, definitions of key variables and concepts, descriptive statistics for main variables, and a description of the analytic techniques. Research consumers should be careful while drawing conclusions from studies that do not provide sufficient information about these key research components. The following points determine the quality of a research

1. Research question:
The research must be clear in informing the reader of its aims. Terms should be clearly defined, even more so if they’re new or used in specific non-spread ways. You as a reader should pay particular attention should to errors in logic, especially those regarding causation, relationship or association.

2. The trustworthiness of researchers: the organization that conducted the researchmust to be trustworthy.

3.Size of the group:
Reported research is based on the assumption that the findings for a sample of people can be generalized to the larger population. How well does the sample represent the larger population, what groups are reported and how well do the respondents represent that group,what was the sample size all determine the quality of research.

4. Data collection:
The procedure for selecting the sample, the time  when results are obtained by publishing an online survey, what motivated the individuals to take the survey, all determine the quality of research

5.Research designs: The research design should be suitable to answer the research question. Readers must distinguish true experimental designs with random assignment from pre-experimental research designs

6.Criteria and criteria measures:

The criteria measures should demonstrate reliability and validity for both, the independent and dependent variable.

7.Data measurement
Was the data analyzed carefully or is this simply a study reporting numbers? ,Do they report measures of reliability and validity? Reliability means the study will produce the same results if you repeat it. Validity means it measures what it claims to measure.

8. Data analysis:
Are the reported differences significant ?, A difference between 25% and 40% might not mean anything at all. A “significant” result is the one that is unlikely to occur randomly or due to chance. Differences must be statistically “significant” to be considered meaningful.

9. conclusions:
The sample size large enough to generalize.
The conclusions should be based on sufficient data.
The reported differences should be meaningful statistically.
The results should make sense based on what one reads.