Deck 18: Putting Research Evidence Into Practice: Evidence-Based Practice and Practice-Based Evidence

Question 1

Systematic reviews are the cornerstone of which of the following?

A) Evidence-based practice
B) Evidence hierarchies
C) Meta-analyses
D) Primary studies

Answer 1

Evidence-based practice

Question 2

The unit of analysis in a meta-analysis is which of the following?

A) Individual study participants
B) A primary qualitative study
C) A primary quantitative study
D) Prior systematic reviews

Answer 2

A primary quantitative study

Question 3

The "fruit" problem in meta-analysis refers to which of the following?

A) Including studies in the analysis from multiple disciplines
B) Including both unpublished and published reports in the analysis
C) Including both qualitative and quantitative findings in the analysis
D) Including studies that have addressed different research questions

Answer 3

Including studies that have addressed different research questions

Question 4

Which of the following activities are normally undertaken as part of doing a meta-analysis? Select all that apply.

A) Obtaining the original data set from primary study researchers
B) Selecting a sample of studies
C) Systematically extracting and recording data
D) Evaluating the quality of studies

Question 5

Searching for studies in the grey literature represents a reviewer's effort to do which of the following? Select all that apply.

A) Counteract the effect of biases against the null hypothesis
B) Increase sample size and therefore have a more comprehensive evidence base
C) Minimize the risk of publication bias
D) Include only published, peer-reviewed studies

Question 6

A viable approach to addressing the quality of primary studies included in a meta-analysis is which of the following?

A) Ignoring the problem of quality by using all studies regardless of rigor
B) Doing sensitivity analyses to assess if the effects change when low-quality studies are included.
C) Using a random effects model rather than a fixed effects model.
D) Using a forest plot to assess the degree to which study quality is related to effect size.

Question 7

When heterogeneity of effects is high (statistically significant), the preferred meta-analytic approach is which of the following?

A) Abandon efforts to undertake a meta-analysis
B) Use a fixed effects analytic model
C) Use a random effects analytic model
D) Use a forest plot to display the extensiveness of heterogeneity to readers of the report

Question 8

An effect size index that can be used in meta-analyses includes which of the following? Select all that apply.

A) Standardized mean difference or d
B) Intensity effect size
C) Pearson's correlation coefficient (r)
D) The odds ratio (OR)

Question 9

A forest plot portrays information about which of the following for each study in the meta-analysis?

A) 95% CIs around an effect size
B) Number of study participants
C) Quality assessment scores
D) Sample size and standard errors

Question 10

Which of the following best defines metasyntheses?

A) Involve interpretation as well as integration
B) Involve meta-summaries
C) Exclude studies judged to be low on trustworthiness
D) Rely primarily on phenomenological primary studies

Question 11

A widely-used approach to metasynthesis was developed by whom?

A) Polit and Beck
B) Noblit and Hare
C) Glaser and Strauss
D) Sackett and Cochrane

Question 12

Paterson and colleagues developed an approach to metasynthesis that includes which of the following components? Select all that apply.

A) Meta-data analysis
B) Meta-method
C) Meta-ethnography
D) Meta-theory

Question 13

The unit of analysis in computing a frequency effect size, using the Sandelowski-Barroso approach, is which of the following?

A) An individual study
B) A study participant
C) A mean value
D) A theme or qualitative finding

Question 14

Which of the following is a cornerstone of evidence-based practice?

A) Systematic reviews
B) Secondary study reports
C) Meta-analysis of qualitative studies
D) Narrative integration

Question 15

Meta-analysis differs from meta-synthesis in that meta-analysis studies use which of the following? Select all that apply.

A) Objectivity in drawing conclusions regarding a body of evidence
B) Combining phenomena into a transformed whole
C) Subjective decisions about how much weight to give findings from different studies
D) A measure of the probability of detecting a true relationship between variables

Question 16

Which of the following not only yields information about the existence of a relationship between variables in many studies but also an estimate of its magnitude?

A) Effect size
B) Problem formulation
C) Grey literature
D) Subgroup analysis

Question 17

It is appropriate to use statistical integration when which of the following components are nearly identical across studies?

A) Independent variable, dependent variable, and study populations
B) Statistical methods, population sample, hypotheses
C) Dependent variable, research design, theory explication
D) Available evidence, novel interpretation of findings, population sample

Question 18

Which of the following is a condition under which meta-analysis would be inappropriate to conduct?

A) Highly conflicting results among studies
B) Research questions across studies being nearly identical
C) A large number of studies to draw from
D) Independent variables are similar across studies

Question 19

Which of the following is most accurate regarding researchers conducting metasyntheses?

A) They often conduct original studies on the same topic as the metasynthesis they are conducting.
B) They perform little advance planning, as it is not needed in qualitative research.
C) They make sampling decisions at the end of the study.
D) They use only peer-reviewed journals in the analysis.

Question 20

Integrating and analyzing qualitative findings from multiple research studies is called which of the following?

A) Systematic review
B) Grey literature
C) Meta-analysis
D) Metasynthesis

Question 21

Analysis of grey literature includes which forms of research?

A) Dissertations, unpublished reports
B) Peer-reviewed journals, funded research
C) Systematic reviews, original research
D) Research reports from electronic databases only

Question 22

Meta-analysts depend on the calculation of an index that encapsulates in a single number the relationship between the independent and dependent variables in each study. An example of this calculation is which of the following?

A) Inclusion criteria
B) Forest plot
C) Cohen's d
D) Moderator analyses

Question 23

Analyzing heterogeneity in meta-analysis can be visually attained with which of the following?

A) Cohen's d
B) A forest plot
C) Inclusion criteria
D) Moderator analyses

Question 24

In this research question for a systematic review, the researchers use which approach to determining the answer to the question: Are clinical outcomes of nurse-led care for patients with rheumatoid arthritis similar to those produced by usual care?

A) Randomized control trial
B) Metasynthesis
C) Meta-analysis
D) Not a researchable question

Question 25

Meta-analysts perform subgroup analyses to accomplish which of the following?

A) Utilize a fixed effects model to ascertain heterogeneity
B) Address publication bias and compute a fail-safe number
C) Determine if exclusion criteria changes the results in a study
D) Split the effect size information from studies into distinct categorical groups

Question 26

In metasyntheses, various methods are employed for interpretive analysis. One method developed by Paterson and a team of Canadian colleagues (2001) involves three components: meta-data analysis, meta-method, and meta-theory. A meta-data analysis involves which of the following?

A) The study of the results of reported research in a specific substantive area by analyzing the "processed data"
B) The study of the methodologic rigor of the studies included in the meta-synthesis
C) The analysis of the theoretical underpinnings on which the studies are grounded
D) The splitting of effect size information into distinct categorical groups

Question 27

In metasyntheses, various methods are employed for interpretive analysis. One method developed by Paterson and a team of Canadian colleagues (2001) involves three components: meta-data analysis, meta-method, and meta-theory. Meta-method involves which of the following?

A) The study of the results of reported research in a specific substantive area by analyzing the "processed data"
B) The splitting of effect size information into distinct categorical groups
C) The analysis of the theoretical underpinnings on which the studies are grounded
D) The study of the methodologic rigor of the studies included in the meta-synthesis

Question 28

In metasyntheses, various methods are employed for interpretive analysis. One method developed by Paterson and a team of Canadian colleagues (2001) involves three components: meta-data analysis, meta-method, and meta-theory. Meta-theory analysis involves which of the following?

A) The study of the results of reported research in a specific substantive area by analyzing the "processed data"
B) The splitting of effect size information into distinct categorical groups
C) The analysis of the theoretical underpinnings on which the studies are grounded
D) The study of the methodologic rigor of the studies included in the meta-synthesis