Moto of Nutrition Society of India is to disseminate evidence based information and we strongly believe in empowering more researcher to conduct good research in India. Hence, NSI Mumbai Chapter organised it’s 1st Research Webinar Series from 5th July to 22nd July 2020 and this series included 9 sessions. This was the 2nd paid webinar series organised during the lockdown by the Mumbai Chapter. YouTube links are not available for this series.
Topic: Research Scope & Opportunities in the field of nutrition research
Speaker: Dr. Anura V. Kurpad, St. John’s Medical College
Dr. Kurpad delivered the inaugural session for research series. He spoke about research scope and opportunities in the field of nutrition. He highlighted the importance of precision in research. Furthermore, he spoke about the opportunities in the field of nutrition research and how one should choose the research topic. He also discussed various funding sources and importance of a good research mentor.
Topic: Rapid Assessment Survey Questionnaire: Features & Applications
Speaker: Dr. A. Laxmaiah, Scientist “G” and Head, Public Health Nutrition, National Institute of Nutrition (ICMR), Hyderabad
Dr. Lakshmaiah spoke about the Rapid Assessment Method (RAM) as a survey method for assessing any health and nutrition problem among vulnerable population groups. He highlighted the checklist for planning and implementing a survey, the measuring techniques and the steps involved in the development of the rapid assessment questionnaire.
Topic: Insights on study design, Sampling Techniques and Sample size calculation
Speaker: Dr. Deepa Mohan, Senior Scientist & HOD Epidemiology, Madras Diabetes Research Foundation, Chennai
Dr. Deepa spoke about data in research (facts or figures from which conclusions can be drawn), the information (data that has been recorded, classified, organized or interpreted) and statistics in research (a common method of presenting information). She highlighted the study designs under Observational studies (Descriptive, Ecologic, Cross-sectional, case-control and cohort) and under Experimental studies (Clinical trials, field trials and community trials). She also enumerated the important points to be considered for a literature review, for a systematic review and for a meta-analysis.
Topic: Applications of Interview method in Qualitative and Quantitative Research
Speaker: Dr. Shubhada Kanani, Adjunct Professor, Parul University, Varodara
Dr. Kanani spoke about the difference between Qualitative and Quantitative research, research design, the different interview methods and how they differ in qualitative and quantitative research She also discussed the steps and do’ and don’ts of Interview Method. She highlighted the importance of factors that need to be considered while collecting data. She highlighted steps for developing a questionnaire for interview, for translation, and pretesting. The process of a successful interview, and information on data management, analysis and presentation was also outlined.
Topic: Research Tool Development – Applications in Quantitative and Qualitative Research
Speaker: Dr. Ranjani Harish, Senior Scientist, Head of Dept of Translational Research, Madras Diabetes Research Foundation, Chennai
Dr. Ranjani spoke about what is a research tool, the steps involved in designing a tool and the reliability and validity of a tool. She gave several examples of studies to demonstrate the reliability and validity, to demonstrate designing of a study tool and its implementation, and examples of various research papers using a tool. She also gave a brief insight into designing and implementation of Qualitative research. Some practical tips for translating an interview guide, pilot testing of the questionnaire, ethics of confidentiality and anonymity, best practices for interviewing, types and number of codes, tips for creating deductive codes, developing a codebook, and using certain software were given.
Topic: Ethics in Qualitative and Quantitative Research
Speaker: Dr. Kiran V. Marthak, Chairman of Inter-system Biomedica Ethics Committee (ISBEC), Mumbai
Dr. Marthak spoke about the definition of ethics, the reasons why ethical principles are so important He also spoke about the key ethical principles- Beneficence, respect for human dignity, and justice. Importance of informed consent, autonomy and confidentiality was also explained. The entire process of developing an informed consent form, and the points to be kept in mind was revisited. Information about the Institutional Review Boards was given. Finally, ethics and ethical concerns in qualitative research were highlighted separately.
Topic: Tips on Statistical Analysis of Research Data & Interpretation
Speaker: Dr. Neha Sanwalka Rungta, Director NutriCanvas; Associate Professor irabai Cowasji Jehangir Medical Research Institute, Jehangir Hospital, Pune; Consultant Statistician Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital and Medical Research Institute
Dr. Neha Sanwalka was the speaker for this session. She started with explaining the importance of understanding statistical analysis in research. She explained the levels of measurements of variable and data entry in excel. She explained coding to participants for ordinal and nominal variables. Then she explained how to test for normality. Thereafter with help of examples she explained what are the different parametric and non-parametric tests for comparison such as T test, F test, Mann Whitney U test, Kruskal Wallis H test etc. She also explained various tests used for categorical variables such as chi-square test and Fisher’s exact test. various tests for correlations and introduction for regression was also given by her. She ended her session with examples of how to convert data into table and figures in a report/ thesis/ paper.
Topic: Scientific Writing – Research
Speaker: Dr. Shobha Udipi, Hon. Director, Integrative Nutrition & Ayurceuticals Kasturba Health Society’s Medical Research Center; Professor Emeritus, Transdisciplinary University of Health Sciences and Technology, Bengaluru
Dr. Udipi started her session by describing the qualities of a good scientific paper. She then discussed each part of scientific paper i.e. Title, keywords, abstract, introduction, methodology, results, discussion and conclusion in details and shared tips on how to write each of these sections succinctly
Topic: Reference Management -Mendeley
Speaker: Ms. Vasumati Sriganesh, Honorary CEO, QMed Knowledge Foundation
Mrs. Sriganesh started the session by introducing the importance of using a reference manager. She explained different aspects of Mendeley. She explained how to add references to Mendeley library, how to insert references through Mendeley library on to a Word document and how to select the referencing format of our choice. She also shared tips and tricks to maintain the Mendeley library.
Topic: Review Paper Writing
Speaker: Dr. Shobha Udipi, Hon. Director, Integrative Nutrition & Ayurceuticals Kasturba Health Society’s Medical Research Center; Professor Emeritus, Transdisciplinary University of Health Sciences and Technology, Bengaluru
Dr. Udipi started the session by explaining the purpose of literature review. She then explained what defines a good review and what are the steps involved in review writing. She also discussed the different types of reviews: narrative, descriptive, systematic and meta-analysis and how they differ from one another. She also discussed the methods of selecting studies for review writing. Lastly she ended her session by introducing everyone to Cochrane library.