Deck 9: Research Synthesis

Question 1

What is the issue with narrative review?

A) This method of gathering studies has no criteria, making narrative reviews prone to bias.
B) This method is any review that collects, organizes, and synthesizes secondary studies with inclusion or selection criteria.
C) This method is not systematic and the method for gathering studies is reported.
D) This method has authors telling a story that is not objective.

Answer 1

This method of gathering studies has no criteria, making narrative reviews prone to bias.

Question 2

Which is NOT true about bias?

A) It is a measure of inaccuracy.
B) It alludes to key points of narrative reviews.
C) It affects or interferes with the results that systemically depart from the true value.
D) It is not representative of all the studies published on a topic.

Answer 2

It alludes to key points of narrative reviews.

Question 3

Which is a flaw of vote counting?

A) Statistically significant results do not indicate importance.
B) One of the typical goals of any review is to combine studies to come to some consensus on what the literature means, and the process of vote counting can create bias.
C) You must have all the existing studies on a given topic.
D) Vote counting synthesizes secondary studies.

Answer 3

You must have all the existing studies on a given topic.

Question 4

Which of the following is NOT a type of bias?

A) Publication bias
B) Duplication bias
C) Error bias
D) Language bias

Question 5

Which is NOT part of a systemic review?

A) A systemic review follows a preplanned methodology for searching the literature.
B) A systemic review does not have a methodology section.
C) A systemic review determines which primary studies to include.
D) A systemic review avoids the shortcoming of the narrative review.

Question 6

Research synthesis occurs in three basic forms. Which of the following is NOT a form of research synthesis?

A) Narrative reviews
B) Systemic reviews
C) Research reviews
D) Meta-analysis

Question 7

Which is NOT true of secondary questions?

A) They can be posited and answered in secondary studies.
B) They can be asked as part of a clinical trial.
C) They are not the main reason for the study.
D) They focus on assessing different dependent measures from the main question.

Question 8

Which is NOT true of effect size?

A) Effect size is the difference between two groups on the dependent variable.
B) The difference in bench press performance between male and female subjects is an effect size.
C) Vote counting includes the effect size.
D) Effect size is the difference in treatment groups on the outcome of interest.

Question 9

What is true about systemic review? Select all that apply.

A) It does not have a methodology section.
B) It is for determining which primary studies to include.
C) It is a review that follows a preplanned methodology for searching the literature.
D) Its purpose is to avoid the shortcomings of the narrative review.

Question 10

What is true about expert review? Select all that apply.

A) It is a narrative review that systematically collects, organizes, and synthesizes primary studies by using inclusion or selection criteria.
B) It is simply a narrative review written by an expert in the field, and has more face validity than reviews written by a new author.
C) It is a narrative review that has the implied purpose of reviewing all the existing literature on a topic.
D) It can have the same purpose of the more general narrative review and be a survey of the literature by an established expert in the field.

Question 11

What is true of the narrative review? Select all that apply.

A) A narrative review is any review that collects, organizes, and synthesizes secondary studies.
B) Narrative reviews do not use a systematic method for searching and selecting articles to include.
C) Expert narrative reviews can be prone to bias.
D) Narrative reviews are not typically hypothesis driven.

Question 12

Which of the following are true of a systemic review for a practitioner? Select all that apply.

A) It focuses on primary studies that are clinician- or researcher-driven to answer the hypotheses.
B) It identifies outcomes and study designs.
C) It identifies the study population for each reviewed study.
D) It is hypothesis-driven.

Question 13

What is duplication bias? Select all that apply.

A) It is the tendency to duplicate the publication of study results.
B) It can happen when the initial publication is through conference proceedings and then again in a journal.
C) It is the tendency of journals to publish similar studies but includes them together because each study has statistically significant results.
D) It occurs when one duplicates the abstracts followed by publications as a full journal manuscript.

Question 14

Which is true of narrative review? Select all that apply.

A) It may have a stated or implied purpose but does not have hypotheses.
B) It may be selective in including primary studies; it rarely reports specific criteria for including studies.
C) It is useful for obtaining a quick snapshot of the literature or, when done by an expert, providing a specific point of view on a topic.
D) It is an extension of the systematic review and permits the authors, or other researchers, to do a quantitative assessment of the results.

Question 15

What is true about bias? Select all that apply.

A) It alludes to key points of these narrative reviews.
B) It does not represent all the studies published on a topic.
C) It is a measure of inaccuracy.
D) It affects or interferes with the results that systemically depart from the true value.

Question 16

What is the advantage of historical review? Select all that apply.

A) It is above the expert review in the evidence pyramid.
B) It has the implied purpose of reviewing all the existing literature on a topic.
C) It is the more prevalent in literature.
D) It conveys an overview of a particular clinical topic.

Question 17

StaStatistically significant results do not indicate importance. What other measures are needed to understand whether a result is important? (See Connections 9-3.) Select all that apply.

A) Effect size
B) Meta-analyses
C) Minimal detectable change
D) Minimal clinical important change

Question 18

Narrative reviews are not typically hypothesis driven.

Question 19

A primary study quality assessment can be completed by reading the meta-analyses conclusions.

Question 20

A standardized mean difference is an adjusted raw mean difference that allows comparison of measures on different scales and with different units.

Question 21

A funnel plot is a technique whereby the number of primary studies needed is calculated to produce an overall effect size.

Question 22

The method of gathering all known studies on a particular topic (i.e., narrative review) is dependable and unbiased.

Question 23

Vote counting is a method of narrative review that counts the number of studies with statistically significant results of a proposed treatment and compares that number with the number of studies with statistically significant results in favor of the alternative treatment.

Question 24

The methodology section usually contains several subsections that address required components.

Question 25

Primary study quality assessment means evaluating the appropriate controls to ensure validity.

Question 26

Language bias is the tendency to exclude studies that are not written in the review author's native language.

Question 27

Case-control trials establish only a causal relationship between two variables, and not a cause-and-effect association the way randomized controlled trials do; therefore, they should not be included in one review.

Question 28

Narrative reviews are discretionary, which means those studies included in the review are decided by the "expert."

Question 29

The purpose of using inclusion and exclusion criteria is to ensure that studies within the systematic review can be compared with each other using means and standard deviations.

Question 30

Narrative reviews focus on secondary studies.

Question 31

Effect size is the magnitude of the difference between groups on the independent variable.

Question 32

Historical reviews have been the most prevalent in the literature because they contain a systematic review of all publications on a particular topic.

Question 33

A ________________________ is a graphic technique (i.e., plotting effect sizes and precision) that looks at symmetry in data.

Question 34

Any form of research that generates its own data to answer a research question is known as a ________________________.

Question 35

A________________________ is a publication that combines and reviews primary studies.

Question 36

The ________________________ is a narrative review that has the implied purpose of reviewing all the existing literature on a topic.

Question 37

Because of the problems associated with narrative reviews, a second type of review has been devised called the ________________________.

Question 38

A ________________________is defined as an adjusted raw mean difference that allows comparison of measures on different scales and with different units.

Question 39

________________________is synthesizing studies by simply counting the number of studies with statistically significant results in favor of a new treatment against the number of studies with statistically significant results in favor of the alternative treatment or control group.

Question 40

A measure of inaccuracy or any effect or interference that produces results that systematically departs from the true value is also known as ________________________.