Qualitative Data Analysis Tools - Assignment Example

Qualitative Data Analysis Tools Research Design The research design identified is a case-control study to identify risk factors in the development ofcoronary heart disease (CHD). Two groups of people will be enrolled in the study: those suffering from CHD and those who are free of the disease. Measures for the two groups taken in order to understand the risk factors that promote the development of CHD. These measures will be based on the lifestyles of study participants before they developed of the disease.

The software selected for the analysis of data arising from this study is STATA. This is a general-purpose statistical software package that has been in use for close to three decades. It has found wide use in various fields of research, including medicine and epidemiology. The software has a friendly user-interface that enables non-advanced users to easily conduct various statistical tests. Apart from common statistical analyses such as exploratory data analysis, comparison of means, regression, and time series analyses, among others, STATA has special commands to analyze data arising from epidemiological studies (Cox, 2006; Da Silva et al, 2007).

Measures such as incidence rate ratios, odds ratios, and matched case-control odds ratios that are critical to investigating differences in the two groups enrolled in the study can easily be conducted (Szklo, 2007; Miller, 2007). Apart from the user friendly drop-down menus, users can also define their own commands for specific analyses and research conditions. For instance, while the default confidence interval is 0.95, advanced users can define special commands to enable them use, for instance, a 0.

99 confidence interval. The customizable menus also easily allow users to focus the analysis to specific study participants.ReferencesCox, DR. (2006). Principles of statistical inference. New York: Cambridge University Press.Da Silva, M., De Oliveira, L., Venicios, M. and De Araujo, L. (2007) Odds ratio for nursing diagnoses in children with congenital heart disease. Invest. educ. enferm , 25(1): 30-38.Miller, G. (2007). Beyond ANOVA: Basics of Applied Statistics. Boca Raton, FL: Chapman & HallSzklo M, Nieto FJ. (2007). Epidemiology: Beyond the basics, 2nd edition.

Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.