Purpose of the discussion segment is to validate the findings in your study
Issues to be addressed in discussion are
- Merits and appropriateness of your study design and methodology.
- Reliability and validity of your results
- Possible bias and confounders: how are those dealt
Merits and appropriateness of your study design and methodology.
- Identify comparable studies on the issue
- Document in the review of literature
- Validate your study design by quoting their examples
- Identify ( if any ) comparable studies has cohort or case control design
- Yes: justify why that study design ( cohort/ case control) could not adopted in your case
- Tips:
- Institutional infrastructure and resources
- Study objectives
- Issues in follow –up : cohort studies
- Issue in recruitment of control : case control studies
- Why an ambi-directional study was not planned
- Why retrospective data was not included, in spite of available medical records in a hospita
Merits and appropriateness of your study methodology
- Highlight the merit patient screening methodology
- Define study population and reason why it was taken
- Screening method
- Steps taken to facilitate patient recruitment
- Prevalence of the disease ( if seen) in the studied population
- Compare the prevalence reported in your study with that reported in other similar studies
- Justify the difference if any
- Efforts done to avoid false negative and false positive selection of patients
- Compare the prevalence reported in your study with that reported in other similar studies
Merits and appropriateness of your methodology
- Procedures
- Procedure/investigation/clinical assessment/Criteria for diagnosis
- Substantiate with references for choosing a particular Procedure/investigation/clinical assessment method/Criteria for diagnosis
- How does type 1 and type 2 errors are reduced
Reliability and validity of your results
- Implications of your findings
- Mention your important findings but do not give your results all over again.
- Most important findings first and least important findings last
- Discuss extent to which objectives are fulfilled and research question answered
- How your study has enhanced the knowledge on the topic
- What extent gaps in knowledge are covered
- Comparison with existing literature
- Discuss your findings in comparison to other studies
- Take those studies with good methodology and validity
- Emphasize the area of your finding in agreement with other reports
- Also emphasize those findings not in agreement with other reports
- Explain the reason for difference
- Methodology
- Sample size
- Study population
Limitations
- Limitations in the screening and recruitment of cases
- Accuracy of the test/procedure/investigation
- Difficulty if clinical diagnosis
Strength
- screening and recruitment of cases
- Accuracy of the test/procedure/investigation
Implications of your study in improving the clinical practice
- Do not over interpret the findings
- Studies results are not universally applicable but only on the patients on which the study was done
- Do not be over enthusiastic in drawing conclusion
- Lack of evidence of adverse effect do not means no adverse events