Learning about different kinds of research
Hello Wellness Researched readers!
Over the past week I have made progress improving the navigation of Wellness Researched. Claims and topics are now more easily navigable with breadcrumb links and the quality of research and the findings of the research is made explicit. There is still much to do on the design front for WR but I hope to make continual progress each week. If you have a suggestion, question or idea, please let me know! You can do so by emailing me at feedback@wellnessresearched.com.
I have been browsing for and reading research papers on how air quality affects cognition. At the start of the pandemic I was worried about staying inside my 1970s era apartment for much longer periods of time than I had prior. I wanted to know if plants could help improve my indoor home environment, and what factors could be harming the air quality in my home. I have always had the belief that outside air is healthier than indoor air but I didn’t know why other than my mom said so.
Starting to look up what research is available on this topic, I began to realize that there are so many different kinds of research conducted. There are surveys, case studies, experiments, meta analyses and more. If I have the goal of making research accessible by validating wellness claims, I am going to have to have a strong understanding of the different kinds of research and what that type of research can say about a claim.
I have decided that WR will also be a resource to learn not just about wellness research but about what kinds of research is conducted on wellness and how to evaluate the likelihood of a claim based on the kind of research done. Oftentimes certain kinds of research is done because getting a direct cause and effect is extraordinarily difficult due to cost, ethical, or other reasons.
While I start to document research methods I will continue to review research papers as I have found reading these papers is broadening my understanding of the problem I’m trying to solve. Thank you for reading and I hope to hear from you soon!