Apologies, I am re-posting this question from Ruth that was accidentally deleted from the website:
Hi... there are no much studies on adolescent nutrition in my country, and no studies carried out in the location am intending to carry out my research, is it advisable to do cross sectional study before starting the intervention study to be able to know the gap and topics that will be relevant during the intervention and also compare the outcome at the end. thank you
Juliet replied:
Hi Ruth
Yes it is of essence to do a baseline prior to your interventions especially if you want to determine the impact of your intervention. This way you can be able to assess what works and doesn't work in your intervention. Make sure that the things you will assess will be based on your area of interest.
And Helen Moestue:
HI Ruth, interesting question. As a general rule, it is useful to do some formative research in advance to inform the main study design, esp. where there is very little existing research to build from. The formative research is usually qualitative, but it may include a short survey. It's also dependent on the time/budget you have, but if you have the opportunity to do formative research, I would do it. Good luck!
Ruth responded:
yes am going to do a base line.... but prior to the baseline is there need to do cross sectional since there are no data on ground not even one study. This is cutting across to determine whether the gap am thinking of is existing before narrowing to 2 location for baseline data collection and the 2 post intervention and control also.
Hi Ruth,
Its difficult to say without know the whole situation. But my view is that you do NOT need a cross-sectional survey as standard before implementing research, besides the baseline survey. However, maybe in your case you feel the need to conduct one, but you have to think carefully why you are conducting one. If you need a survey to confirm whether or not this is a good location to implement your research, then you have to be willing to modify your approach based on the results i.e. change the location of the research if that's what the results indicate.
If you are already committed to conducting the research in this setting, then there is no value in questioning that with a survey. You will get an idea at baseline of the current situation, and you will be able to see if there is any improvement by endline.
I hope that helps your decision,
Natasha
Answered:
6 years agoHi Ruth,
I would tend to agree with Natasha in that a baseline survey should be informative enough. However, given the lack of relevant research in your geographical area I think it will be important to ensure that there is enough evidence to support the implementation of your intervention (i.e., is it needed and will it have impact in the population?). If you have the time and budget, perhaps some qualitative research would be beneficial to understand adolescent nutrition in this area and provide justification for what you are proposing to implement. Just a thought!
Emily
Answered:
6 years agothank you for shading more light on the whole process. i have really benefited
Answered:
6 years ago