Four sections (background/introduction, methods section, measures section, discussion)
Based on R analysis that’s done on NHANES data)
The DATA result in the attached, draft proposal with feedback is attached
the project should include a 1-2 paragraph background/introduction that supports the research question/hypothesis for your analysis. In addition to APA style references, the background should include four elements:
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A clear statement of the problem. The health outcome(s) that you’re hoping to improve or address should be clearly stated at the outset and supported with recent data on burden, prevalence, disparities, and inequities.
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Identification of important gaps in the literature. Your analyses should be addressing a limitation or gap in the current published literature or otherwise addressing a need. It is important that you clearly spell-out these gaps.
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Research question or hypothesis. You should consider your outlet, audience, and message. However, there are some general expectations for public health, most importantly the PICO-T (Population, intervention, comparison, outcome, time). Generally, the PICO-T framework will also leverage information about the study design as well.
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Potential Impact. If the findings support your research question/hypothesis, how will it improve our scientific understand and public health
The methods section begins with an explanation of your Sample. Generally, it should include basic information about your population (e.g., non-institutionalized adults age 18-44), how the population was recruited (e.g., random-digit dialing), administration method (e.g., web-survey or interview), study design (e.g., cross-sectional survey, prospective cohort study, retrospective cohort study), information on response rates, recruitment time period, and an ethics statement.
Sometimes lab-based studies will use different headers and include detailed sections regarding administration, but most students in DPH are using survey data and the Sample is the most appropriate header.
follows the measures section. The measures section should be organized with three level 3 subheadings: outcomes, exposures, and other covariates. Outcomes should include a concise explanation of any of your dependent or outcome variables. Exposures should include any independent variables, risk or protective factors that are central to your main research question. Other Covariates should include other variables that you might be controlling for or maybe effect modifiers.
Below are some examples of concise explanations of your variables. The purpose of the project is not to assess your writing skill but your ability to plan, implement, and summarize a data analysis project.
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Self-reported lifetime marijuana use was based on the item, “have you ever smoked marijuana or used THC products.” Response options were recoded with “no” as the referent group, “don’t know” as missing, and “yes” the presence of lifetime marijuana use.
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Race/ethnicity was recoded into four categories: Black Non-Hispanic, Hispanic, White Non-Hispanic, or Other.
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The 12 items measuring self-efficacy were summed into a composite with higher scores indicating higher self-efficacy.
The data analysis subsection of your methods should be the final section of your methods section. It should be no more than a few sentences. It should include any descriptive, bivariate, or multivariate statistics. However, you generally do not need to discuss analyses related to assumption checking, unless your assumption checking led you to deviate from a standard analysis approach for your field. Generally, you don’t need to explain creating data visualizations, unless it deviates from standard practice or contributed toward hypothesis testing. Make sure to mention your data analysis software, any add on packages, and how variances were estimated if using complex survey data.
the discussion is the most important part of the paper. It provides the authors’ views, contextualized in the study’s results and previous research, on the findings. However, for the DPH the discussion should be 2-3 paragraphs or no more than 1 page. Make sure to include 1) a summary of findings (without repeating the results), 2) specific limitations to your study, and 3) implications for policy and practice. Keep is simple. You don’t need to include headers, but I do want to see that these are written well.