RSA Research Methods & Evidence-Based Practice 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Evidence-based RSA practice means servers and managers should base refusal policies primarily on:
- Personal intuition and years of experience alone
- Research-supported behavioral indicators of intoxication (Correct answer)
- Customer complaints
- Manager preference
Correct answer: Research-supported behavioral indicators of intoxication
Evidence-based practice integrates the best available research evidence with professional judgment to guide decisions.
Question 2: A 'meta-analysis' in alcohol research is best described as:
- A single large study with thousands of participants
- A statistical technique that combines results from multiple studies (Correct answer)
- An expert panel discussion
- A government policy report
Correct answer: A statistical technique that combines results from multiple studies
Meta-analysis pools quantitative data from multiple independent studies to derive an overall effect estimate with greater statistical power.
Question 3: Which sampling method would produce the most representative data about drinking behaviors across all US adults?
- Convenience sampling at a local bar
- Stratified random sampling of the national population (Correct answer)
- Voluntary online survey
- Interviewing only college students
Correct answer: Stratified random sampling of the national population
Stratified random sampling ensures all demographic groups are proportionally represented, increasing generalizability.
Question 4: When a state implements a new alcohol server training law and then measures DUI rates before and after, this is called a:
- Double-blind experiment
- Pre-post (before-after) quasi-experimental design (Correct answer)
- Cross-sectional study
- Longitudinal cohort study
Correct answer: Pre-post (before-after) quasi-experimental design
Pre-post designs compare outcomes before and after an intervention without a control group, making them quasi-experimental.
Question 5: Peer-reviewed research is generally more trustworthy than industry-funded white papers because:
- It is always free to access
- It has undergone independent expert evaluation for methodology and accuracy (Correct answer)
- Government agencies write it
- It uses larger samples
Correct answer: It has undergone independent expert evaluation for methodology and accuracy
Peer review subjects research to scrutiny by independent experts, reducing the risk of methodological flaws and bias going undetected.
Question 6: In alcohol harm reduction research, 'incidence rate' refers to:
- The total number of people who have ever had an alcohol-related problem
- The number of new alcohol-related events occurring in a population during a specific time period (Correct answer)
- The percentage of servers who pass training
- The average BAC at closing time
Correct answer: The number of new alcohol-related events occurring in a population during a specific time period
Incidence rate measures new cases or events within a defined population over a specific time period, tracking how quickly harm is occurring.
Question 7: Which type of validity is threatened when a study on RSA training only tests participants immediately after training rather than 6 months later?
- Internal validity
- External validity (Correct answer)
- Construct validity
- Face validity
Correct answer: External validity
External validity (generalizability) is threatened because results from an immediate post-test may not reflect real-world, long-term behavior change.
RSA Research Methods & Evidence-Based Practice 3
Evidence-based RSA practice means servers and managers should base refusal policies primarily on: