Student Guide: Pre-Session Activity

Family and Community Health – Research submodule

Research Preceptorial Session #4
Population and Sampling

STUDENT GUIDE

I. OBJECTIVES

Specific Learning Contents Detailed Teaching- Resources Assessment/

Objectives Learning Strategies & Needed Evaluation
Activities Tool
At the end of this Introduction to Pre-Session Preparation Student pre- Pre-test
session, the sampling (1.5 hours) session Answers to the 3
students should be worksheets activities
able to determine Sampling 1) SGD –
the appropriate Terminology Sampling Terminology Laptops In-session
target population, (40 minutes) worksheets
sampling Common In-session
population, Sampling methods 2) Subgroup Activity 1: worksheets Preceptor
sampling unit, - Probability Sampling Methods evaluation
sampling method, - Nonprobability (30 minutes)
and sample size
for a research Sample size 3) Subgroup Activity 2:
question. computation using Sample size
OpenEpi computations for
calculator different research
problems
(30 minutes)

II. INSTRUCTIONS
This session involves 4 main activities:
1. Pre-Session Preparation (IIA)
2. Small group discussion on sampling terminologies (IIB);
3. Subgroup activity (IIC) on sampling methods;
4. Subgroup activity (IID) on sample size computations.

III. GRADING SYSTEM

Individual Participation (total weight: 20%)
o “how much has the student shown initiative and participation in the conduct of the activity?”
Group Work (subgroup grade, total weight: 80%)
o Content (“How significant and relevant is the group output in the context of healthcare? Was the
discussion insightful?”) – 40%
o Form (“How much of the relevant questions specific for the task were answered by the group?
Was the discussion organized in a logical manner?”) – 40%
 Student Guide: Pre-Session Activity
INSTRUCTIONS
IIA. Pre-Session Preparation (2 hours)

The session on Study Population and Sampling Methods is designed to be a “flipped classroom
module,” based on the design by Dr. John Wong, MD, MSc. Please look at this infographic
(http://bit.ly/1JEy25Y) that illustrates the difference between flipped and traditional classroom
approaches. The Pre-session readings and videos will explain to students the concepts of study
populations and sampling methods before they come in for their preceptorial session. Students will be
given guide questions that guide them on what to note down for each reading and video. Students will
also prepare questions they have about the material so they can ask the preceptorial instructor.

NOTE: During this session, students are expected to go through the learning materials without any
faculty present. The small group discussion activities (IIB, IIC, IID) will be conducted with a faculty
preceptor.

A. INTRODUCTION TO SAMPLING
Please read/watch the following:
a. Sampling in Research (Schatz, n.d.)
http://schatz.sju.edu/methods/sampling/intro.html
b. Read the section on Terms Used with Sample Surveys (Pennsylvania State University, 2015)
https://onlinecourses.science.psu.edu/stat100/node/15
c. Sampling Population, Sample, and Generalizability (Hozack, 2014)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOBYsdgGhVw

Guide Questions
1) What is sampling?
a. Sample – finite part of a statistical population whose properties are studied to gain
information about the whole (Webster, 1985). When dealing with people, it can be
defined as a set of respondents selected from a larger population for the purpose of a
survey
b. Population – a group of individuals, persons, objects, or items from which samples are
taken for measurement for example a population of presidents or professors, books or
students
c. Sampling is the act, process, or technique of selecting a suitable sample, or a
representative part of a population for the purpose of determining parameters or
characteristics of the whole population
2) What is the purpose of sampling?
a. To draw conclusions about populations from samples, we must use inferential statistics
which enables us to determine a population’s characteristics by directly observing only a
portion (or sample) of the population.
b. We obtain a sample rather than a complete enumeration (a census) of the population for
many reasons.
i. It is cheaper to observe a part rather than the whole, but we should prepare
ourselves to cope with the dangers of using samples.
ii. A census may not be practical and is almost never economical.
iii. 6 reasons: economy, timeliness, the large size of many populations,
inaccessibility of some of the population, destructiveness of the observation,
accuracy
1. Economy – taking a sample requires fewer resources than a census. For
 Student Guide: Pre-Session Activity
the type of information desired, a small wisely-selected sample can serve
the purpose. Interviews and analyses can be completed by the researcher.
Rarely does a circumstance require a census of the population, and even
more rarely does one justify the expense.
2. Time – a sample may provide you with needed information quickly.
3. Very large populations – many populations about which inferences must
be made are quite large.
4. Partly accessible populations – some populations are so difficult to
access that only a sample can be used (e.g. prisoners, crashed airplanes,
presidents). Inaccessibility may be economic or time-related.
5. Destructive nature of observation – sometimes, the very act of observing
the desired characteristic of a unit of the population destroys it for the
intended use (e.g. testing the quality of the fuse to determine whether it is
defective)
6. Accuracy – a sloppily conducted census can provide less reliable
information than a carefully obtained sample
3) Why do we take samples instead of complete censuses?
4) Define the following terms in your own words:
a. Target Population – the large set of people in the world to which the results of the study will
be generalized (ex. High school students) (group of people that the researcher is interested
in)
b. Study population – subset of the population available for study (ex. High school students in
Ortigas)
c. Study sample – sample chosen from the study population
d. Sampling Frame or Sampling Population – list of the sampling units from which those to be
contacted for inclusion in the sample is obtained. (group of people from which a sample is
drawn) (ex. Population is children in a certain district, sampling frame is children in a certain
school in a certain district)
e. Sample – those individuals/objects who provide the data to be collected. Numerical
characteristics of the sample are called statistics and are typically used as estimates of
population parameters (the group of subjects in a study)
f. Sampling Unit – the individual person, animal, object that has the measurement (observation)
taken on them/it (ex. Each of the high school students who were given the survey)
5) What is the relationship between population, study population, sampling frame, sample, and sample
unit?
a. Sample unit is the individual people/objects in the sample. Sample is a portion of the
sampling frame. Sampling frame is a subset of the study population. Study population is
a subset of the population that is available for study.
6) What is meant by taking a “representative sample”? What happens if we do not take a representative
sample?
a. The representative sample is the sample whose characteristics (based on your study) can
be generalizable to the whole population. Main goal of sampling is to choose a sample
that represents the population well.
b. Sampling procedure, sample size (the larger the sample is, the more likely it is to
represent the population), participation rate (important esp. for studies that include
surveys)
c. If the sample doesn’t represent the population, the results won’t generalize.
d. A representative sample is one that has all the important characteristics of the population
from which it is drawn.
 Student Guide: Pre-Session Activity
B. COMMON SAMPLING METHODS
Please read/watch the following:
a. Only the section on Probability Sampling Methods for Quantitative Studies (WHO, 2004)
http://apps.who.int/medicinedocs/en/p/printable.html
b. Non-Probability Sampling (Hozack, 2014)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VO_xHHD180

Guide Questions
1) What is the main difference between probability and nonprobability sampling methods?
a. Probability sampling – each study unit has an equal or at least a known probability of
being selected in the sample
i. Simple random sampling
1. Make a numbered list of all the units in the population from which you
want to draw a sample or use an already existing one (sampling frame)
2. Decide on the size of the sample
3. Select the required number of sampling units using a lottery method or a
table of random numbers
ii. Systematic sampling – individuals or households are chosen at regular intervals
from the sampling frame. For this method, we randomly select a number to tell us
where to start selecting individuals from the list.
1. Usually less time-consuming and easier to perform than simple random
sampling
2. Risk of bias – sampling interval may coincide with a systematic variation
in the sampling frame
iii. Stratified sampling – sample includes representative groups of study units with
specific characteristics (e.g. residents from urban and rural areas, or different age
groups), then the sampling frame must be divided into groups, or strata,
according to these characteristics. Random or systematic samples of a
predetermined size will then have to be obtained from each group.
1. Only possible when we know what proportion of the study population
belongs to each group we are interested in.
2. Advantage – possible to take a relatively large sample from a small
group in the study population
iv. Cluster sampling – may be difficult/impossible to take a simple random sample
of the units of the study population, either because a complete sampling frame
does not exist or because of other logistical difficulties.
1. When a list of groupings of study units is available or can be easily
compiled, a number of these groupings can be randomly selected.
2. The selection of groups or study units instead of the selection of study
units individually
3. Often geographic units or organizational units
v. Multi-stage sampling – carried out in phases and usually involves more than one
sampling method. Often the case in community-based studies in which the people
to be interviewed are from different villages, and the villages have to be chosen
from different areas.
vi. Strengths of cluster and multi-stage
1. Sampling frame of individual units is not required for the whole
population. Only within the clusters that are finally selected do we need
to list and sample the individual units
2. Sample is easier to select than a simple random sample of similar size
 Student Guide: Pre-Session Activity
because the individual units in the sample are physically together in
groups, instead of scattered all over the study population
vii. Weakness of cluster and multi-stage
1. Larger probability that the final sample will not be representative of the
total study population.
2. Likelihood of the sample not being representative depends mainly on the
number of clusters selected in the first stage. The larger the number of
clusters, the greater the likelihood that the sample will be representative.
b. Non-probability sampling
i. Subjects are chosen to be part of the sample in non-random ways
ii. Convenience
1. Researcher selects the sample based on convenience
2. Weakness: people who are readily available are not necessarily
representative of the population at large
3. Not practical to use another method other than convenience sampling
iii. Quota
1. Involves setting quotas based on demographic information
2. Strengths: demographics are approximately correct for the population
3. Quotas can be set for gender, age, income level, educational attainment,
etc.
4. The more categories there are, the more likely we will have a sample
representative of the population; but the more categories that are
specified, the more complex, costly and time-consuming the study will
be
iv. Judgmental/purposive sampling method
1. The sample is based on the judgment of who the researcher thinks would
be best for the sample
2. Works best if there is a limited number of people with the expertise
needed to be part of the sample
2) What are the advantages and disadvantages of probability sampling?
3) When should we use a nonprobability sampling method?
4) What are the advantages and disadvantages of each sampling method?

C. FACTORS THAT AFFECT SAMPLE SIZE

Please read Sample Size Calculation (Kadam and Bhalerao, 2010).
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2876926/

Guide Questions
1. What are the factors that affect sample size?
 Acceptable level of significance
o prior to starting a study we set an acceptable value for this “p.”
o we are ready to accept that the probability that the result is observed due to chance
(and NOT due to our intervention) is 5%.
o Direct relationship
 Power of the study
o Type II error: we fail to detect a difference when actually there is a difference
o The “power” of the study then is equal to (1 –β) and is the probability of failing to detect
a difference when actually there is a difference
 Student Guide: Pre-Session Activity
o power of a study increases as the chances of committing a Type II error decrease
o direct relationship
 Expected effect size
o In statistics, the difference between the value of the variable in the control group and
that in the test drug group is known as effect size.

o we want to find out the association between smoking and getting brain tumor,
where the “effect” is unknown or small, the sample size required to detect an
association would be larger.
o Indirect relationship
 Underlying event rate in the population
o estimated from previously reported studies
 Standard deviation in the population
o Standard deviation is the measure of dispersion or variability in the data.
o Smaller deviation (homogenous group) in the sample population will make it easier to
detect differences between interventions
o Direct relationship

2. What are the relationship/s of each factor with sample size (indirect/direct)?

D. CALCULATING SAMPLE SIZE USING OpenEpi

Please go the website (www.openepi.com/Menu/OE_Menu.htm) and become familiar with the
OpenEpi sample size calculator for each type of study design by doing the “Examples” exercises for
each type of study design..
To access the sample size calculators, look at the menu panel on
the left and choose one of the options for “Sample Size.”
For more information on how to use the calculator, you may
read the following (2-page) guides for each.
a. Proportion (cross-sectional studies)
http://www.openepi.com/PDFDocs/SSProporDoc.pdf
Note: for cluster sampling, use DEFF = 2.0
b. Unmatched CC (Case-control studies)
http://www.openepi.com/PDFDocs/SSMeanDoc.pdf
c. Cohort/RCT
http://www.openepi.com/PDFDocs/SSCCDoc.pdf
d. Mean Difference
http://www.openepi.com/PDFDocs/SSCohortDoc.pdf

INSTRUCTIONS
IIB. Small Group Discussion on Sampling Terminologies (40 minutes)
The students were provided with their groupings, guide questions and references 2 days before
the SGD session. During the small group discussion session proper, the students will discuss the answers
to the guide questions above. The students will facilitate the small group discussion. The preceptor’s
task is to guide the students’ discussion and answer any questions, as well as reinforce important
concepts, particularly for B#4.
 Student Guide: Pre-Session Activity

NOTE: There will be two more activities during the SGD (IIC. Sampling Methods and IID. Sample
Size Computations). Instructions for these activities will be given during the SGD proper.