The intended purpose of the abstract is to give you experience in developing research studies on current issues. Write an abstract (1-2 pages) that outlines a proposed research study and highlights the important issues in conducting research on the selected topic.
The abstract must include the following:
An introduction which outlines the importance related to the topic and the research proposed.
Define epidemiology
A statement of the public health significance of the issue
Epidemiology data showing the scope of the problem at the global, national, or local level
The gap in the research which this proposed study will fill
The structure of the proposed research
The study design
Subjects
Who are your subjects?
If starting with exposed/unexposed subjects, how is exposure defined?
If starting with diseased/nondiseased subjects, how is disease defined?
Outline the case definition (i.e. if studying diabetes, how do you define diabetes, who is included as someone with diabetes, who isn’t)
If including a control group, what are the inclusion/exclusion criteria
Identify the proposed data sources for the study
Are you collecting your own original data through surveys or relying on previously collected sources like HER or state/national databases?
Discuss the proposed variables to assess exposure and outcome in the study
Selected covariates to control for confounding (describe variables and why selected)
A research hypothesis
Discussion of the fundamental limitations that may be related to the proposed study
What can this study show, what can’t it do?
Will the results be generalizable? If so, to which kinds of groups?
