Research designs help in learning from experience and taking actions to improve the future. The analytical study is a type of comparative study design. It explores causal inferences about the relationship between outcomes and risk factors. Mostly, these studies test hypotheses, determine causes, and identify the association between the variables. Thus, in analytical study designs, actions are taken on the cause system to improve the system of interest. Such studies primarily focus on predictions. Moreover, the method and theories are critical components for analytical study design due to the temporal nature of improvements. This article will further explore the purpose of analytical study, the meaning of analytical research study, and its two most important types, along with examples.
What Is The Purpose Of An Analytical Study?
The fundamentals of analytical study design rely on ‘Deming’s system of profound knowledge, which is an intellectual foundation for the improvement of sciences. Analytical studies, by combining the elements of Shewhart’s view of variation, the concepts of systems, essentials of psychology, and theories of knowledge, provide several key principles for the analysis of subjects that need improvement. Thus, such studies aim to explore some important aspects of a frame like cause-effect relationship, description, and comparison. In addition to examining certain aspects of a frame, it also predicts or suggests resulting actions we can take on a system to improve it. Consequently, when we study a system and predict some strategies or plans to improve its performance for the future, the study design will be analytical.
What Is Analytical Research Design?
The special type of research design that includes critical evaluation and thinking skills to examine the facts and information relevant to a system or subject under study is known as analytical research design. In other words, irrespective of the discipline, the analytical research designs use multiple approaches to suggest strategies, plans, and actions for better performance of a system. Thus, various people, including psychologists, students, doctors, and many others, use analytical research designs to find credible sources of information to solve scientific problems.
The analytical study design is a generic process that combines the scientific method and other formal processes to solve all types of scientific problems. Thus, the following are a few steps and techniques that you can use to improve the proposed system. A review of these steps to conduct an analytical study will further clarify the main concept.
- Define the problem that you need to solve through the analytical method
- Sketch and not down the steps necessary to solve a study
- Formulate a hypothesis for relating variables involved in a study
- Design experiments for collecting data in the controlled environment
- Experimentent and note down the readings or phenomenon observed
- Reject/ accept/ alter and formulate a new hypothesis
- Repeat experiment unless or until the hypothesis is accepted
- Implement solutions if applicable at the time of research. If you cannot immediately implement a solution, then report it as a future recommendation.
- Find new factors, variables, and proposed possible outcomes to suggest further improvements.
Apart from all, the analytical research design also includes analytical software to find the scientific story behind the data collection. The analytical analysis is the most critical part of analytic research on which the whole inference and outcomes depend. If you are unable to d it on your own, you can hire dissertation writing services.
What Are The Two Main Types Of Analytic Studies?
In medical research, analytical studies are important to find the relationship of outcomes with exposure to a disease. In business and management sciences, it aims to predict the results of a proposed strategy and plan for the growth of an organization. The analytical study designs start from observation and include intervention/experiment/ survey to suggest solutions.
Furthermore, there are four types of analytical studies, namely, ecological, cross-sectional, cohort, and case-control. Firstly, in ecological analytical studies, a comparison is held between the average exposures of a population and the outcome rate in that particular population. Secondly, a cross-sectional analytical study measures the prevalence of exposure with the prevalence of the disease. In other words, it compares the incidence of a problem with the incidence of certain factors. Thirdly, cohort studies begin with a group of affected and non-affected individuals or organizations. It further compares the cause and effects in both groups to predict the solution of a problem under study. Lastly, case-control studies are most common in studying rare diseases or problems. It works by manipulating certain limiting or affecting factors to see their effect on the overall situation. Thus, in all four types of analytical study designs, comparison, observation, and evaluation are common steps.
But as far as the types of analytical studies in epidemiology are concerned, there are only two main types, experimental and observational. In such studies, if we expose the subjects randomly and observe whether they recover or develop a disease, then such studies will be experimental. In contrast, observational studies are the ones where researchers do not determine who is exposed. Instead, they simply observe the participants and outcomes.
What Are Examples Of Analytical Study?
There are several examples of analytical studies. Let us illustrate some most relevant types to the context of this article.
Example one:
Suppose as a researcher, you know that smoking affects the normal functioning of the lungs and further want to know its contribution to cardiovascular diseases. Then, the research design that groups smokers and non-smokers to measure the body mass index and compare other risk factors is an analytical study design.
Example two:
Suppose an organization faces a large employee turnover rate, then the use of a predictive analytical model to form and implement employee retention policies is also a subject of analytical research design.
Conclusion:
This article explained the growing body of research designs by highlighting the significance of analytical study design. Concisely, the analytical study design works to improve the existing system, disease, and organization by finding relationships between the variables/risk factors/ exposure and outcomes. In general, you can achieve these aims by selecting observational and experimental types of design in epidemiological studies. In particular, cohort, cross-section, control case, and ecological types of analytical designs are useful in solving other scientific problems.
Author Bio:
Robert Fawl is a professional Content writer & Content Marketer. Based in London, Robert is an author and blogger with experience in encounter composing on various topics including but not limited to Essay Writing, Dissertation Writing, Thesis Writing Services and Assignment Writing etc.
