Abstract
Graham JE, Karmarkar AM, Ottenbacher KJ. Small sample research designs for evidence-based
rehabilitation: issues and methods.
Conventional research methods, including randomized controlled trials, are powerful
techniques for determining the efficacy of interventions. These designs, however,
have practical limitations when applied to many rehabilitation settings and research
questions. Alternative methods are available that can supplement findings from traditional
research designs and improve our ability to evaluate the effectiveness of treatments
for individual patients. The focus on individual patients is an important element
of evidenced-based rehabilitation. This article examines one such alternate approach:
small-N research designs. Small-N designs usually focus on 10 or fewer participants
whose behavior (outcomes) are measured repeatedly and compared over time. The advantages
and limitations of various small-N designs are described and illustrated using 3 examples
from the rehabilitation literature. The challenges and opportunities of applying small-N
designs to enhance evidence-based rehabilitation are discussed.
Key Words
List of Abbreviations:
AFO (ankle-foot orthosis), RCT (randomized controlled trial)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: June 11, 2012
Footnotes
Supported by the National Institutes of Health (grant no. R24-HD065702).
No commercial party having a direct financial interest in the results of the research supporting this article has or will confer a benefit on the authors or on any organization with which the authors are associated.
Reprints are not available from the author.
In-press corrected proof published online on Jun 9, 2012, at www.archives-pmr.org.
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Copyright
© 2012 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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- CorrectionArchives of Physical Medicine and RehabilitationVol. 93Issue 12
- PreviewThe article, Graham JE, Karmarkar AM, Ottenbacher KJ. Small sample research designs for evidence-based rehabilitation: issues and methods. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2012;93:S111-6, was mistakenly published online as an uncorrected proof in May 2012. The article was embargoed to publish as a special communication with all other content for the August 2012 Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation supplemental issue (August 2012; Vol 93, No. 8, Suppl 2). In an attempt to remove the article from online publication and remedy the publishing error, the publisher erroneously retracted the article.
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