This second SPP assignment focuses on the sections of your research protocol that will provide brief background information and support for your topic choice, a discussion of your study design and target population, identification of your population sample and its required size, a description of recruitment or data selection strategies, and considerations of selection bias.

For the body of the assignment, you will include a 1-page (maximum) description of necessary background information on your topic based on existing literature. Note that this is not expected to be a thorough literature review, but rather a concise summary of important information about your topic that is needed to set the context for your proposed research study. (Note: Any background information will be assumed to be accurate. It will not be assessed, although any background material over 1 page will be ignored. Appropriate references must be provided for the background material.)

This assignment should be written as a 4 page scholarly paper excluding title page and references (do not just provide an outline). APA form and style are expected to be followed, including the correct use of in-text citations and references.

The following is an example of a content outline for this paper. While you are not required to follow this outline exactly, all of the following content should be included in some way in the scholarly paper:

(Include this in your paper)

• Background (one page maximum)
  • Statistics and information about the health outcome/disease(s)
  • Statistics and information about the exposure/risk factor(s)
  • Brief discussion of possible connection between exposure(s) and outcome(s) and justification for the study
• Target population and sample size
  • Description of target population and sample
    • Inclusion and exclusion criteria
    • The sampling strategy to be used
  • Sample size considerations (how large of a sample do you need and why)
• Recruitment (primary data collection) or data selection (secondary data) strategies
  • If collecting your own data, describe:
    • How you will find and contact potential participants (where, when, with what method)
    • The type of data collection method to be used (e.g., online survey)
    • How many times participants will be contacted and by what method
  • If using secondary data (an existing database), describe:
    • The procedures used for recruitment, participation, and data collection by the owners of the database (i.e., how were the data in the database collected?)
    • How you will gain access to the dataset
• Selection biases
  • Description of potential selection bias concerns (i.e., how representative your sample will be of the larger population)
  • Discussion of strategies you will use to minimize selection bias in your study