Julianne Stoddard and Dr. Ray Merrill, Health Science
Epidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of disease in human populations. Health educators use epidemiological statistics to understand the nature of human disease. These statistics are also used to determine how disease is transmitted throughout the community. This knowledge is imperative to identify at risk populations and to assess the needs of that population. Once the needs of the community are established, health educators are then responsible to develop effective programs and health education to meet those needs.
Recent studies have been conducted concluding that the mean number of statistical methods used per article in medical and health-related journals has significantly increased over the past three decades. Our concern was that no study, according to our knowledge, had been conducted to determine if health education journals were following similar trends. We hypothesized that health education journals were following an increased trend in the use of statistics. We agreed that an identification of study designs and the frequency of the use of statistical methods would help determine which methods should receive greater attention in instructional programs within the health education curriculum.
Full-length and review articles from 1994 to 2003 in three leading health education journals, American Journal of Health Education, Health Education Research, and Health Education and Behavior, were assessed. Not included in the assessment were editorials, personal perspectives, community learning ideas and procedures (CLIPS), and teaching ideas.
The article assessment was conducted from January to May 2004. I had various tasks associated with this project. First, I made a Microsoft Excel spread sheet to organize the abstracted information. After this task was completed, I read the Abstract, Methods, and Results sections and scanned all other sections and tables of the articles for pertinent information. I entered all collected information in coded form into the Excel spreadsheet. After I had reviewed and collected pertinent information from the articles in all three journals, I then calculated the totals within the Excel spread sheets.
Study designs were classified as either descriptive or analytic and included several study designs. Different statistical techniques were also categorized. Although we followed similar methods to categorize statistics previous studies had used, these categories had to be adjusted to fit an assessment of health education journals. These modifications included descriptive statistics, and more detailed categories of regression and analysis of variance (ANOVA) methods.
To increase the validity of the study, another investigator, using the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and categories that had been devised, independently reviewed all the articles I had previously assessed. Any disagreements between us regarding the collected information were discussed with Dr. Ray Merrill who independently reviewed the article and resolved the conflict. Shortly after the compilation of the data, a statistical analysis was conducted. Each reviewer then worked to formulate graphs and charts in preparation for publication of the project in the different journals.
Our results indicated a sharp increase in the use of statistical methods in the health education journals that were surveyed. Cross-sectional studies were the most common type of study design. Although there was a positive increase in epidemiological statistics, a significant increase was not found. It is projected, however, that there will be an increased use in future health education literature as the fundamental role of epidemiological statistics is better understood.
The greatest difficulty associated with this project was that there is no standard set to categorize study designs and statistical methods in health education. Categorization was left to us and the greatest efforts were made to classify the collected information appropriately.
This project has been extremely valuable for me. Currently this project has been published in the American Journal of Health Education, and has been accepted for publication in Health Education and Behavior, pending revisions. Publication of these two articles has been helpful in obtaining an internship at the federal level and I am certain that it will help me to be extremely competitive in obtaining future employment and education. Being allowed to participate in this project has helped me keep my commitment to live a life of learning and service.