Validity and Reliability in Medical Research

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the problems involved in ensuring the validity and reliability in medical research. The author provides many examples of the importance of ensuring validity and provides several relevant sources of research that have not always met the correct criteria.

From the Paper:

"One way to understand a research study is to view it as an exercise in measurement (Rothman and Greenland 1998a, p. 115). To uphold the validity of the measurement process is to reduce the possibility of systematic error or bias, and to preserve thereby its accuracy. To uphold the reliability of the measurement process is to reduce the risk of random error and to ensure thereby its precision . A key purpose of a research design is therefore to ensure accuracy and precision by eliminating the twin dangers of systematic and random error.
Threats to validity in the form of systematic error due to bias can arise at any point in the research process: from the question addressed, the literature searched, the sampling and selection process, the intervention, its measurement, through to the analysis and interpretation of results. Rather than identify each and every type of bias that can skew a study (given that Sackett (1979) identifies more than fifty), it is perhaps more useful to understand validity in terms of the steps taken to reduce bias and confounding in the design stage of a research study."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Abramson JH and Abramson ZH (2001). Making sense of data. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Datta M (1993). You cannot exclude the explanation you have not considered. The Lancet, 342, 345-347.
• Delgado-Rodriguez M, Llorca J (2004). Bias. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 58(8)35-641.
• Elwood M (1998). Critical appraisal of epidemiological studies and clinical trials (2nd edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Feher, MD et al. (1995). Fat arms, obesity and choice of blood pressure cuff size in diabetic patients. British Journal of Clinical Practice,49(6):286-7.

More papers on Validity and Reliability in Medical Research:

• Article Review # 88457 : "Nursing in ALS"
• Argumentative Essay # 49057 : "Maternity Care"
• Research Paper # 29476 : "Adolescent Substance User Screening Instruments"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: