Discuss the strengths and limitations of your approach.

Quantitative Health Research

Section B: (1,500 words maximum)
Use the Population Intervention/ Exposure Comparison Outcome (PICO) framework to frame a research question relating to an important public health issue. Choose a study design from those studied in this module (cross-sectional, ecological, case-control, cohort, randomised controlled trial or cluster randomised controlled trial) that could be used to answer this question and write a draft research proposal.
You will be awarded a maximum of 3 marks for a good structure and style of your proposal (title, formatting, spelling, grammar and coherence in presentation). The headings you should include in your proposal are:
Research question
State your research question using PICO.
Why is this an important question for public health?
Reference relevant literature to support the importance of your research question and provide a reference list at the end of the document. The reference list is not part of the word count.
Why is this an appropriate study design to answer your research question?
Ensure discussions here are related to the context of your study or research.
How would you select participants for your study?
Think about how you would select and approach the participants to take part in your study.
What are your exposure and outcome measures? How would you collect data on these measures?
The exposure could be an intervention (in an RCT). Outcome refers to the health outcome of interest.
Discuss the strengths and limitations of your approach.
Consider issues around bias, chance and confounding and other practical issues if relevant
General advice for completing Section B
Your proposed research should be realistic and pragmatic. It should be able to be carried out within a 10-month period.
This a draft proposal and will not include all elements of a full proposal such as statistical data analysis method, etc. Including elements outside the suggested headings will not be marked.
Remember that this is a research yet to be carried out and therefore needs to be written in future tense.