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Hypothetical Research Project IBS study Analysis Dr. Craig Jackson Senior Lecturer in Health Psychology School of Health and Policy Studies Faculty of Health & Community Care University of Central

Hypothetical Research Project - Checklist Identify a research question Identify a population Identify a sample and capture it Select a methodology Research tools Subject deployment Statistics and analysis Interpretation Write up

Some research has suggested that IBS is more prevalent in some occupational groups than others eg. night workers Some research has suggested that IBS is more prevalent in females than males Some research has suggested that IBS is more prevalent in some personality types than others What questions are raised here ? Hypothetical Research Project – Checklist Irritable Bowel Syndrome

ARE WE INTERESTED IN LOOKING AT DIFFERENT WORKING GROUPS? Shift workers v’s Flexi workers Factory workers v’s Office workers Sedentary workers v’s Mobile workers Exposed workers v’s Non / Low Exposed workers Salaried workers v’s Waged workers Temporary workers v’s Permanent workers

Irritable Bowel Syndrome ARE WE INTERESTED IN LOOKING AT DIFFERENT GENDERS? Male v’s Female Parent v’s Non – Parent Gay v’s Straight Single ’s Married

Irritable Bowel Syndrome ARE WE INTERESTED IN LOOKING AT DIFFERENT PATIENT GROUPS? Personality type A v’s Type B Neurotic v’s Normals Depressed v’s Normals Former psychiatric patient v’s Normals

Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Workers WHAT QUESTIONS SHOULD BE ASKED? 1. Do night workers suffer IBS more than day workers ? 2. Do females suffer IBS more than males ? 3. Do manual workers suffer IBS more than skilled workers ?

Hypothetical Research Project - Checklist Identify a research question Identify a population Identify a sample and capture it Select a methodology Research tools Subject deployment Statistics and analysis Interpretation Write up

Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Workers Do nocturnal workers suffer IBS more than diurnal workers ? Do females suffer IBS more than males ? Do manual workers suffer IBS more than skilled workers ? Different shiftsDifferent sexesDifferent skills A population

Hypothetical Research Project - Checklist Identify a research question Identify a population Identify a sample and capture it Select a methodology Research tools Subject deployment Statistics and analysis Interpretation Write up

Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Workers Sampling from the population Need Exclusion & Inclusion Criteria 1.Subjects must have IBS (Is this a good criteria? There is an argument for and against it) (Is this a good criteria? There is an argument for and against it) 2. Subjects must be between certain age limits: Subjects must not have any other organic condition 4. Subjects must not be currently receiving psychiatric treatment 5. Subjects must speak English as a first language 6.Subjects must work full time

Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Workers Convenient Sample Frame would be: 1. Patients attending a local gastroenterology clinic Fit into the exclusion criteria Could be recruited into the study Problem with this method ? 2. People working locally Could be recruited into the study Problem with this method ?

Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Workers Methodology? “Patients diagnosed with IBS showing no known physical cause for their symptoms, with no other illness (the Rome Criteria)…..who work in an occupational setting that passes the exclusion criteria.” Knowing who the sample is and how they can best be accessed determines and shapes the methodology...

Legion of IBS patients Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Workers Methodology Over 12 months, we recruit patients on their initial visit to the gastro unit (prior to treatment) into the project Use questionnaire method to collect data Each patient will receive a score, based on their responses to questions about their: SYMPTOMS SEX SHIFT and TYPE OF WORK What type of subject design might this be?

Hypothetical Research Project - Checklist Identify a research question Identify a population Identify a sample and capture it Select a methodology Research tools Subject deployment Statistics and analysis Interpretation Write up

Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Workers Research Tools What is being measured? IBS symptoms -Develop a symptom scale Sex-Ask Shift- Ask Work-Ask Develop the scale required to get the data Remember to pilot any questionnaire / scale developed It must be valid i.e. measures what it is supposed to measure Otherwise CONSTANT ERRORS will encroach into data

Hypothetical Research Project - Checklist Identify a research question Identify a population Identify a sample and capture it Select a methodology Research tools Subject deployment Statistics and analysis Interpretation Write up

GroupNIBS Score Shift - Day Night Sex -Female Male WorkManual Non manual Night shift report greater IBS symptoms Females report greater IBS symptoms Skilled report greater IBS symptoms Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Workers Preliminary Results After 12 months 200 Patients agreed to take part 150 returned completed questionnaire packs

Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Workers Preliminary Figures

Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Workers Preliminary Results Three findings already from simply looking at some DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS about the data A fourth finding from the DESCRIPTIVE STATS is the distribution / frequency of responses to the IBS scale But it is not enough just to present the 4 graphs. INFERENTIAL STATISTICS are required

Hypothetical Research Project Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Workers INFERENTIAL STATISTICS - The T test IBS score as dependent variable, with SHIFT as the independent variable, operating on 2 levels (day & night) DayNightT P IBS score as dependent variable, with SEX as the independent variable, operating on 2 levels (female & male) FemaleMaleT P IBS score as dependent variable, with WORK TYPE as the independent variable, operating on 2 levels (manual & non-manual) ManualNon-ManualT P

Further Investigation of IBS Data Obtain IBS and Shift data from Use the dataset to proved the descriptive data about the IBS sample for each of the groups of interest - SHIFT, SEX, WORKTYPE Mean IBS scores Standard deviations Minimum IBS scores Maximum IBS scores Confidence Intervals

Further Investigation of IBS Data Obtain “IBS and Shift” data from Using “IBS score” as the dependent & “SHIFT” as the independent / factor Mean IBS scores Standard deviations Minimum IBS scores Maximum IBS scores Confidence Intervals

Hypothetical Research Project - Checklist Identify a research question Identify a population Identify a sample and capture it Select a methodology Research tools Subject deployment Statistics and analysis Interpretation Write up

Hypothetical Research Project INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS Now aware of: A significant difference between shifts of workers and IBS score Non - significant differences between the sexes & type of work and IBS score Shift work was associated with a difference in how subjects rate their IBS symptoms, with night shift workers reporting significantly greater symptoms (5.56) than day workers (4.52, p=0.002) Sex differences between workers (irrespective of shift) was found to have no effect upon the differences in IBS symptoms reported by these two groups (females 5.12, males 4.98), p=0.67 Skill required for the work was also found to have no effect upon subjects’ reporting of symptoms (manual workers =4.7, non-manual =5.29, p=0.085)

Hypothetical Research Project - Checklist Identify a research question Identify a population Identify a sample and capture it Select a methodology Research tools Subject deployment Statistics and analysis Interpretation Write up