Research and Evidence-Based Practice Flashcards

An Institutional Review Board (IRB) in research is PRIMARILY responsible for:

Answer: Protecting the rights, safety, and welfare of human research participants

IRBs review research protocols involving human subjects to ensure ethical standards are met, focusing on protecting participant rights, safety, and welfare before and during a study.

Valid informed consent for a nutrition research study requires that participants:

Answer: Voluntarily agree to participate after receiving adequate information about the study's purpose, risks, benefits, and right to withdraw

Informed consent protects participant autonomy by ensuring they voluntarily agree to participate only after fully understanding the study's purpose, procedures, potential risks and benefits, and their right to withdraw at any time.

In a single-blind clinical nutrition trial, which party is unaware of the group assignment?

Answer: Only the participants do not know their group assignment

In a single-blind trial, participants do not know whether they are receiving the active intervention or control, which reduces placebo effects and response bias.

A cross-sectional study design in nutrition research is BEST used to:

Answer: Measure exposure and outcome simultaneously at a single point in time

Cross-sectional studies collect data on both exposure and outcome at one time point, providing a snapshot of prevalence but unable to establish temporal sequence or causality.

A prospective cohort study design in nutritional epidemiology is characterized by:

Answer: Following disease-free individuals forward in time and observing who develops disease based on dietary patterns

Prospective cohort studies enroll disease-free individuals, collect baseline dietary data, and follow them forward over time to observe incident disease, allowing assessment of temporal exposure-outcome relationships.

An odds ratio (OR) of 0.5 in a case-control study examining dietary fiber intake and colon cancer risk MOST suggests:

Answer: High fiber intake is associated with half the odds of developing colon cancer

An OR of 0.5 indicates that the exposed group (high fiber intake) had half the odds of the outcome (colon cancer) compared to the unexposed group, suggesting a protective effect.

Selection bias in a nutrition research study is MOST likely to occur when:

Answer: The study sample is systematically different from the target population due to how participants are recruited or who agrees to participate

Selection bias occurs when the study sample does not accurately represent the target population due to systematic differences in who is selected, recruited, or consents to participate, limiting the generalizability of findings.