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Searching the Literature: Choosing the study design

How to do a literature review

Study Design checklist

Use these bullet points as prompts when selecting which study design best suits your search question.

  • Which type of Study design best fits my research question?
  • Systematic Reviews and Randomised Controlled Trials (RCT's) are the most common study design.
  • Refer to the table below to identify your question type, Intervention, diagnosis and the associated study design.
  • PubMed and OVID Medline have built in study design limits.
  • Always add your study design limit at the end of your search groups.
Question
Best Study Design
Description
Intervention Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) Subjects are randomly allocated to treatment or control groups and outcomes assessed. How to select treatments to offer patients that do more good than harm
Aetioloy  RCT Aetiology are similar to intervention questions, so an RCT is the ideal study type. How to identify causes for disease.
  Cohort Study Outcomes are compared for matched groups with and without exposure or risk factor (prospective study)
  Case-control study Subjects with and without outcome of interest are compared for previous exposure or risk factor (retrospective study)
Diagnosis Cross-section study with random or consecutive sample. How to select and interpret diagnostic tests
Prognosis Cohort study How to estimate the patient's likely course over time and anticipate likely complications of disease.

 

 

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