Understanding Clinical Papers

Preface to the First Edition Preface to the Second Edition Preface to the Third Edition Preface to the Fourth Edition PART I SETTING THE SCENE: WHO DID WHAT, AND WHY 1 Some Preliminaries 2 The Abstract and Introduction 3 The Aims and Objectives PART II DESIGN MATTERS: WHAT TYPE OF STUDY IS IT? 4 Descriptive Studies: Qualitative 5 Descriptive Studies: Quantitative 6 Analytic Studies 7 Intervention Studies 8 Mixed Methods Research 9 Studies of Complex Interventions 10 Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis 11 Systematic Review of Qualitative Studies PART III THE CAST: FINDING OUT ABOUT THE SUBJECTS OF THE RESEARCH 12 The Research Setting 13 Populations and samples 14 Research Using Already-Collected Data 15Sampling for Qualitative Research 16 Identifying and Defining Cases 17 Controls and Comparisons PART IV ESTABLISHING THE FACTS: STARTING WITH BASIC OBSERVATIONS 18 Identifying the Characteristics of Quantitative Data 19 Summarising the Characteristics of Quantitative Data 20 Identifying and Summarising the Characteristics of Qualitative Data 21 Measuring the Characteristics of Participants: Quantitative 22 Measuring the Characteristics of Participants: Qualitative 23 Measuring the Characteristics of Measures 24 Measurement Scales 25 Exploring and Explaining: Topic Guides PART V ESTABLISHING MORE OF THE FACTS: SOME COMMON WAYS OF DESCRIBING RESULTS 26 Fractions, Proportions, and Rates 27 Risks and Odds 28 Ratios of Risks and Odds PART VI ANALYSING THE DATA: ESTIMATION AND HYPOTHESIS TESTING 29 Confidence Intervals for Means, Proportions, and Medians 30 Confidence Intervals for Ratios 31 Testing Hypotheses - the p-Value PART VII ANALYSING THE DATA: MULTIVARIABLE METHODS 32 Measuring Association 33 Measuring Agreement 34 Linear Regression 35 Logistic Regression 36 Poisson Regression 37 Measuring Survival 38 Analysing Qualitative Data PART VIII READING BETWEEN THE LINES: HOW AUTHORS USE TEXT, TABLES AND PICTURES TO TELL YOU THE STORY 39 Results in Text and Tables 40 Results in Pictures 41 The Discussion and Conclusions References Index