STUDY POPULATION

INTRODUCTION:  Every study in the medical sciences has two aspects: study population and study area also known as subject area. People who you want to find out about are collectively known as the study population or simply population and are usually denoted by the letter N. It could be a group of people living in an area that is if you are interested in community research, employees of an organisation if you are interested in institutional settings, a community, a group of people with special issues, among others. 

The people from whom you gather information, known as the sample and they are denoted by n, are selected from the study population.  It should be noted that the sample is usually smaller and more refined than the study population.

HOW TO SELECT THE STUDY POPULATION:  To select the study population the research student should look at the target population and the estimated sample size, in addition to the objectives of the study.  It is wise to note that, the estimated sample size will be just a proportion of the study population.

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