Faithfull S
Centre for Cancer and Palliative Care Studies, Institute of Cancer Research, Sutton, Surrey, England.
J Adv Nurs. 1997 Apr;25(4):853-8. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2648.1997.1997025853.x.
The aim of this paper was to review the literature on time-series analysis and describe its use within the context of a nursing research project. The author utilized the method to investigate the symptoms of somnolence and fatigue that patients experienced following cranial irradiation for cancer. The need for longitudinal research in all areas of health care is a current concern. This is especially true in clinical areas where small patient numbers and palliative settings make large quantitative studies difficult. There are few studies or texts that help the practising researcher to explore data analysis over time in a way that reflects the time-series nature of these data. This raises questions of how to analyse such data. The study indicated that symptoms following radiotherapy were different from that previously described in the literature. Time-series analysis indicated a cyclical pattern that gave valuable information for planning supportive services. This paper explores some of the issues of time-series analysis and illustrates the process of analysis, exploring the benefits and disadvantages of this approach for research.
本文旨在回顾关于时间序列分析的文献，并描述其在一项护理研究项目中的应用。作者运用该方法调查了癌症患者接受头部放疗后出现的嗜睡和疲劳症状。当前，医疗保健各个领域都需要进行纵向研究。在临床领域尤其如此，因为患者数量少以及处于姑息治疗环境中，使得大规模定量研究困难重重。很少有研究或文本能帮助实践中的研究者以反映这些数据的时间序列性质的方式来探索随时间变化的数据分析。这就引发了如何分析此类数据的问题。该研究表明，放疗后的症状与先前文献中描述的不同。时间序列分析显示出一种周期性模式，这为规划支持性服务提供了有价值的信息。本文探讨了时间序列分析的一些问题，并阐述了分析过程，探究了这种方法在研究中的优缺点。
