Observational Survey

Example of an Observational (Survey) Study

Appel, S.J., Harrell, J.S., & Deng, S. (2002). Racial and socioeconomic differences in risk factors for cardiovascular disease among Southern rural women. Nursing Research, 51(3), 140-147.

The title appropriately indicates the target population sampled (Southern rural women), as well as two key independent variables (race and socioeconomic status—inclusive of education and income) examined for their associations with risk of cardiovascular disease. A possible enhancement of the study title would be to include reference to the type of study design used (e.g., “An observational study of…”). The abstract is well structured per the journal standards and is complete in presenting the key points of
Specific research questions are outlined just prior to the Methods section of the article. A thorough and current literature review is presented in which the authors identify the current state of knowledge and needs for additional research. They make a clear and convincing case of the importance of the research for preventing cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in at-risk/vulnerable populations, of which their sample includes a subset (African American women residing in the rural southeastern U.S.). This research topic and the study population match well with current national research funding priorities focusing on health disparities in vulnerable populations (in this case, disparities among African American versus white women in the burden of mortality and morbidity from cardiovascular
Significance levels (P values) for results are presented in the tables and text as appropriate. Tables 2 and 3 present the descriptive statistics for the sociodemographic variables of income and education, as well as cardiovascular diseases and other physiologic variables such as age and BMI that are associated with cardiovascular disease risk. Chi-square tests were used to test for differences in proportions of African American and white women in various nominal-level categories of income, education, and disease status (Table 1). Independent samples t-tests were used to test for group mean differences for African American and white women on physiologic variables (Table 2). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test levels of income, race, and education as predictors of cardiovascular risk. An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used in which BMI was treated as a covariate, with race, education, and income treated as independent variables in predicting cardiovascular risk status. The analyses allowed the researchers to better understand how the variables of race, education, income, and BMI were associated with each other, and resulted in the conclusion that educational level and BMI were the only significant predictors of cardiovascular risk, after adjusting for income and