Interpreting Research Findings — Practice

Practice bank for UCAT Decision Making questions that describe a research study and ask you to evaluate its conclusions.

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Quick-Reference: Evaluating Research

Study Design Hierarchy

Design	Can Establish Causation?	Notes
Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT)	Yes (gold standard)	Random allocation, control group
Cohort study	No — association only	Follows groups over time
Case-control study	No — association only	Looks backwards from outcome
Cross-sectional survey	No — snapshot only	Measures at one point in time
Case report / case series	No	Individual observations

Threats to Validity

Threat	Description
Selection bias	Participants are not representative of the population
Confounding	A third variable explains the association
Information bias	Errors in measuring the exposure or outcome
Attrition	Participants drop out, skewing results
Publication bias	Positive results are more likely to be published

What to Check