Epidemiologic Survey Methods

Written assignment 

You are hired to perform a cross-sectional survey to investigate the effect of postpartum-depression (PPD) on infant’s feeding practices. The study aims to: 1) assess the prevalence of PPD and its determinants, and 2) examine the association of PPD with prevalence and duration of breastfeeding.

1. Perform a literature review and write a brief introduction to the survey topic. (0.5–1 pages double-spaced)
2. Define your outcome (dependent) and explanatory (independent) variables that need to be measured to answer the study aims (0.5 page)
3. Outline your sampling strategy: (0.5 page)
   1. What is the target population?
   2. What is the sampling frame?
   3. What is the sample design?
4. Explain how you are going to analyze your data. (Write a short, cohesive data analysis plan for your survey). (0.5 page)
5. Design a questionnaire of about 12-15 questions to address the research question

It is up to you to decide what type of survey to conduct (self- vs. interviewer-administered). Briefly, explain why you chose a certain method to implement your survey (mail, web, interviewer, etc.). Do not forget to write a short, clear instruction section in the beginning of the questionnaire depending on the type of the survey you chose to conduct. Use of some questions from already validated and used questionnaires is permitted provided that the source of the question/s is reported (however, copying all the questions from published resources is not permitted—you need to write the majority of the questions yourself.)

Hint: to have an excellent assignment—and a good survey project—do not consider this assignment as an academic exercise but as an actual plan to perform the survey in reality. Imagine you are actually going to survey a sample of mothers (or other target population) and try to think about how you are going to design and perform such a research project.