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Researchers routinely collect demographic data to describe the sample of people or organizations in their studies. These data are reported in narrative or table format, with frequencies used for qualitative and quantitative studies. Readers of research should not skip these data to get to the results of the report. The demographic data are an important part of the study and should be examined carefully.
Demographics
Demography is a field of study in which researchers examine the quantifiable statistics of a particular popula- tion (Vogt & Johnson, 2011). Statistics are used to identi- fy subsets of the populations and characterize them at a specific point in time. Common demographics are age, sex, ethnicity, level of education, disabilities, employ- ment, and socio-economic status as well as topic-specific characteristics (American Psychological Association, 2009). Demographic trends are historical changes in demographics in a population over time.
Quantitative research samples of populations ideally are collected by selecting participants randomly from the larger populations. A random sample generally would have the characteristics in the same proportions as the population. This random selection is rarely possible in nursing or medical studies. Instead, a sample often is drawn from the people who are available and will agree to participate in the study. This can produce a sampling bias or error in which some members of the population are less likely to be included than others (Vogt & Johnson, 2011). This not only can affect study outcomes, but also can lead to exclusion of some people from research (National Institutes of Health, 2001).
Demographics Data in a Study
Generally, researchers only study a sample of a partic- ular population, such as nurses who are direct-care providers in the Moore, Leahy, Sublett, and Lanig (2013) study and hospital patients in the Swartzell, Fulton, and Friesth (2013) study, both in this issue. Therefore, they collect demographics to inform readers about the sample of respondents to their survey or about representative hospital records. The hope is this sample is representative of the larger population. A researcher should select care-...