The Importance Of Scientific Research And Evidence Based Practice

This essay will explain the importance of scientific research and evidence based practice (EBP) in sports therapy, including the differences between qualitative and quantitative research. There are 4 sources that will be compared; these include a journal article (qualitative), journal article (quantitative), a trade journal article and a conference abstract. The quality of the sources will be evaluated, including strengths and weaknesses and how reliable those sources are today.

Research and EBP are important to sports therapy because our understanding of sport and the effects it has on the body is far from complete. It is only through continual research that our understanding of sport can be maintained and enhanced. Research can be defined as;

“Any honest attempt to study a problem systematically or to add to man’s knowledge may be regarded as research” (Theodorson and Theodorson 1969 cited in Reber 1995, p.663)

Evidence based practice can be defined as:

“The use of mathematical estimates of the risk of benefit and harm, derived from high-quality research on population samples, to inform clinical decision making in the diagnosis, investigation or management of individual patients” (Trisha Greenhalgh)

There are two main approaches to research, qualitative and quantitative, both have very different characteristics. Qualitative research uses non-numerical data, usually gathered through interviewing a small group of people (samples), which is undertaken in a natural environment. Samples are chosen because they possess particular characteristics i.e. having an injury. The researcher does not control variables and uses an interpretative approach. The aim is to provide understanding and meaning, however, this type of research is not s...

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...d recovery; however, their view differs slightly in the technique to be used. All however, show improvements to an athlete’s recovery. Research in this area can be improved by further research, then authors reviewing all the gathered information in a meta-analysis to compare all the research and produce articles with their findings. The sources allow you to make a judgement and fully understand the importance of research in this field. There are many more improvements that can be made in the future and evidence based practice can improve the athletes time during recovery, giving them mental support as well as physical support system as mandatory.

This research has improved understanding of the topic, by all using different techniques, but creating similar results from their studies. And have proved that there are definitely major links within their views and results