Glossary

Bias: a systematic error or departure from the truth in results of a study.

Cohort study: a group of people with a common set of characteristics or set of characteristics that are followed up for a period of time to determine the incidence of an outcome; there is no comparison group.

Cullum, N., Ciliska, D., Haynes, R.B., & Marks, S. (2008). Evidence-Based Nursing. An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell

Case control study: an observational study that begins by comparing patients who have the health problem (cases) and control participants who do not have the health problem, and then looking back in time to identify the existence of possible causal factors, for example, identifying patients with and without lung cancer and looking back in time to determine past smoking behavior (exposure to tobacco).

Dawson-Saunders, B., & Trapp, R.G. (1994). Basic and Clinical Biostatistics. Norwalk: Appleton & Lange

Case report: detailed report of a person detailing signs, symptoms and progression of illness.

Case series: a report on a series of patients with an outcome of interest; there is no comparison group.

Confounders: a variable that affects the observed relationship between two other variables. For example, alcohol consumption is related to lung cancer but does not cause the disease; instead, both alcohol and lung cancer are related to smoking (the confounder), which causes lung cancer.

Crombie, I.K. (1996). The pocket guide to critical appraisal: A handbook for Healthcare Professionals. London: BMJ Publishing Group.

Evidence: information or facts that are systematically obtained, i.e. obtained in a manner that is replicable, observable, credible, verifiable, or basically supportable.

Rycroft-Malone, J., & Stetler, C.B. (2004). Commentary on evidence, research, knowledge: a call for conceptual clarity. Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing, 1(2), 98-101.

Evidence-based medicine (EBM): the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of the current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients.

Sackett. D.L., Rosenberg, W.M., Muir-Gray, J.A., Haynes, R.B., & Richardson, W.S. (1996). Evidence-based medicine: what it is and what it isn’t. BMJ, 328, 535-536.

Evidence-informed decision making (EIDM): the use of evidence that contributes to decision making about particular problems or issues about best use of resources within institutions and across the healthcare system.

Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (2006). Weighing Up the Evidence. Making evidence-informed guidance accurate, achievable, and acceptable. A summary of the workshop held on September 29, 2005. http://www.chsrf.ca/SearchResultsNews/09-12-16/5317c7da-84d6-4998-a119-8bb34be8a61c.aspx, last downloaded May 2008.

Evidence-informed public health (EIPH): The process of distilling and disseminating the best available evidence, whether from research or from actual practice, and using that evidence to inform and improve public health practice and policy. Put simply, it’s finding, using and sharing what works in public health.

National Collaborating Centre for Methods and Tools. http://www.nccmt.ca/eiph/index-eng.html

Dissemination: involves identifying the appropriate audience, and tailoring the message and medium to the audience. Dissemination activities can include such things as summary/briefings to stakeholders, educational sessions with patients, practitioners and/or policy makers, engaging knowledge users in developing and executing dissemination/implementation plan, tools creation, and media engagement.

Canadian Institutes for Health Research About Knowledge Translation.
http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/29418.html

Knowledge translation: is a dynamic and iterative process that includes synthesis, dissemination, exchange and ethically sound application of knowledge to improve the health of Canadians, provide more effective health services and products and strengthen the health care system. This process takes place within a complex system of interactions between researches and knowledge users which may vary in intensity, complexity and level of engagement depending on the nature of the research and the findings as well as the needs of the particular knowledge user.

Canadian Institutes for Health Research About Knowledge Translation.
http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/29418.html

Knowledge exchange (formerly knowledge transfer): is collaborative problem-solving between researchers and decision makers that happens through linkage and exchange. Effective knowledge exchange involves interaction between decision makers and researchers and results in mutual learning through the process of planning, producing, disseminating, and applying existing or new research in decision making.

Canadian Health Services Research Foundation. Glossary of Knowledge Exchange Terms Used by the Foundation. http://www.chsrf.ca/keys/glossary_e.php

Meta-analyses: a method for combining the results of several independent studies that measure the same outcomes so that an overall summary statistic can be calculated.

Dawson-Saunders, B., & Trapp, R.G. (1994). Basic and Clinical Biostatistics. Norwalk: Appleton & Lange.

Phenomenology: an approach to enquiry that emphasizes the complexity of human experience and the need to understand that experience holistically, as it is actually lived.

Polit, D.F., & Hungler, B.P. (1997). Essentials of Nursing Research: Methods, Appraisal and Utilization. Philadelphia: Lippincott.

Pre-appraised research evidence: resources that have undergone a filtering process to include only research of higher quality, and that are regularly updated so that the evidence is current.