Читать книгу Nursing and Health Interventions - Souraya Sidani - Страница 79

After determining the availability of a data set, the process for accessing the electronic copy starts. The process varies with the requirements of the agencies that own the data. For instance, there is a website for the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging that provides general information about the study, the specific variables measured (e.g. demographic, cognitive, sleep problems), and the process for acquiring a copy of the data of interest. This process consists of completing a request form that is approved by the research team, and of signing a confidentiality form. Once the data file is obtained, it should be carefully reviewed to get a clear understanding of the variables and their measurement, which has implications for planning the data analysis. The analysis follows the conventional steps of: (1) conducting descriptive statistics to examine the distribution of the data and the extent of missing data for each variable; (2) handling missing data with the most appropriate method (e.g. McKnight et al., 2007); (3) computing total scale scores for variables measured by multi‐item scales; and (4) performing relevant correlational analyses to investigate the direct associations between the health problem and each determinant (e.g. bivariate correlation) or a set of determinants (e.g. regression analysis); the indirect relationships among the determinants and the problem (e.g. structural equation modeling); and/or the moderating effect of a factor (e.g. multigroup analysis).