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Nerd_Bunny wrote:Anyone have a good summary of the different types of studies? (Experimental, cohort, cross-sectional..etc?) I need a good, concise way to remember the basics about each study. I know all of the calculations and such, but I'm having trouble remembering what each of them is for. Thanks!
EDIT: Usually I just have long paragraphs of stuff on my info sheet, but I think it's time to downsize...

Here's my basic understanding, I put an example next to each. I hope it helps!
Randomized control trial: randomly assign people to treatment/exposure and a placebo, usually to test medicine (People with cancer are randomly given a drug or placebo to test results)
Quasi experimental: like RCT, but not random (People with cancer that are older than 40 are given the drug while younger people are given a placebo)
Cohort: Compare people with or without a certain exposure to see what might resulte in a disease (Comparing medical records of smokers vs non smokers to see if smokers got a certain disease)
Case-control: Compare people with and without disease to see what could have been the cause (Comparing habits of people with/without lung cancer to find common exposure in people with disease and no exposure in people without disease)
Cross sectional: data collected at a point in time, to see prevalence of a disease (surveys/ questionnaires)
Ecological: data analyzed by looking at the location of things (John Snow's cholera outbreak study, where he mapped where people with cholera lived)

How often to statistics questions come up in Division C exams?

And can someone please explain what a t-test is and how to do it?

Hi,
Has there been an update to the Ten Steps of Outbreak Investigation? I ask because there was a question about it a few times on some of the tests from last year, and with the setup that we had we got it incorrect along with having different numbers of steps sometimes. I know that the wiki has a different version up from previous years, but the link to show the explanations on why the steps are the way they are is still from previous years and also has a thing above it saying that it has been peer reviewed and it was current. Taking a look at the resources on SOINC, the only thing that stuff about it is the CDC has the old definition. However, when searched on the actual CDC website, there's a 13-step version. So, which one are we considering correct? I'd assume that it's the most current, but what about invitationals who don't use the most current one?
Thanks!

Nerd_Bunny wrote:Anyone have a good summary of the different types of studies? (Experimental, cohort, cross-sectional..etc?) I need a good, concise way to remember the basics about each study. I know all of the calculations and such, but I'm having trouble remembering what each of them is for. Thanks!
EDIT: Usually I just have long paragraphs of stuff on my info sheet, but I think it's time to downsize...

The wiki has it great if you just wanna glance at your notesheet and figure it out...you don't need any more

"Ecological - comparisons of geographical locations

Cross Sectional - a survey,health questionnaire, "snapshot in time"

Case-Control - compare people with and without disease to find common exposures

Cohort - compare people with and without exposures to see what happens to each

Randomized Controlled Trial - human experiment

Quasi Experiments - research similarities with traditional experimental design or RCT, but lack element of random assignment to treatment/control"

Are we allowed to use a graphing calculator during the competition?

huppada wrote:Are we allowed to use a graphing calculator during the competition?

I feel like pulling an experienced member and saying "read the rules"

nut nah, the rules say non-graphing calculator dedicated to computation

so no

This really sounds like a stupid question but I'm asking it here anyway.

So I've really been messing up on questions asking about means, modes, and medians of dates on a epi-curve. I have the definition of median right here on a paper and it says:

"Median: half the values lie above the median and half the values lie below the median; outliers do not affect median. Medians are typically reported when data are skewed."

Then it gives these examples:

1,3,5,7,9 Median = 5
1,3,3,5,5,6 Median = 2.5

Wouldn't the second median be 4? I promise I didn't fail math in elementary school but I'm thinking that there's something wrong with this paper. If I'm wrong I want a full math explanation because this has been bothering me for a while now.

Ok nevermind. The paper was wrong. I googled it.

WhatScience? wrote:

huppada wrote:Are we allowed to use a graphing calculator during the competition?

I feel like pulling an experienced member and saying "read the rules"

nut nah, the rules say non-graphing calculator dedicated to computation

so no

The rules this year state, " two calculators of any type dedicated to computation."

summit wrote:

WhatScience? wrote:

huppada wrote:Are we allowed to use a graphing calculator during the competition?

I feel like pulling an experienced member and saying "read the rules"

nut nah, the rules say non-graphing calculator dedicated to computation

so no

The rules this year state, " two calculators of any type dedicated to computation."

This is why I reference the rules instead of posting an answer - that way, I can't be wrong

Unome wrote:

summit wrote:

WhatScience? wrote: I feel like pulling an experienced member and saying "read the rules"

nut nah, the rules say non-graphing calculator dedicated to computation

so no

The rules this year state, " two calculators of any type dedicated to computation."

This is why I reference the rules instead of posting an answer - that way, I can't be wrong

I'm going to hide in a hole forever...don't like all the other events say non-graphing....

-_-



my career is over guys