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Directions for Using the Smoking Behavior Database

Getting Started

  1. Open the Smoking Behavior Research Questionnaire. A link to the questionnaire is also available on the Explorer Data and Odds Ratio pages.

Explore Data

Use Explore Data to view the data for a question in the research questionnaire. You can view the data in table and histogram (not yet available) form. Questionnaire responses are divided into those given by research subjects who are cases and those who are controls.

  1. Click on the Explore Data tab.
  2. From the pull-down menu, select a question you are interested in. Click the "Retrieve Data" button.

Odds Ratio

Use Odds Ratio to test a hypothesis and input a query, using one question from the research questionnaire to test the hypothesis.

  1. Click on the Odds Ratio tab.
  2. Required Fields: You must fill out these fields in order to meaningfully query the database:
    • Study population: Select the population you wish to query: everyone, males, or females.
    • Exposed Question Number: Enter question number with answer options separated by commas. For example, 26b,c.
    • Not Exposed Question Number: Enter question number with answer options separated by commas. For example, 26a.
  3. Optional Fields:. It is helpful but not necessary to fill out these fields in order to query the database. If you provide the optional information, it will be carried forward onto other screens as a text reminder to you of the details and goal of your query.
    • Research Question: Type the research question you are trying to answer into the Research Question text box.
    • Research Hypothesis: Restate the question in a more specific way as a hypothesis and type it into the Research Hypothesis box.
    • Exposed Description: Type a brief description of exposed into this text box. For example, for 26b,c, you could write, "people who, when growing up, had one or more parents who smoked"
    • Not Exposed Description: Type a brief description of not exposed into this text box. For example, for 26a you could write, "people who, when growing up, did not have any parents who smoked."
  4. To obtain the 2 X 2 table, the Odds Ratio, and the 95% Confidence Interval for your query, click on the "Retrieve Data" button.
  5. Check to make sure that the questionnaire question displayed on the output page is the one you intended to investigate.
  6. For additional details on this query, click on the "Details" button at the bottom of the Odds Ratio Output page.
  7. Clicking on the "Report" button at the bottom of the Odds Ratio Details page will generate a page similar to the output page. In the future, you will be able to enter an e-mail address to send a copy of this information to yourself or your instructor.

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