Research Report: Ridge and Goodson

The Ridge and Goodson study, "The Relationship Between Multidisciplinary Discharge Outcomes and Functional Status After Total Hip Replacement" (2000), takes place in an academic medical center. Inclusion criteria required the patient to be planning to undergo total hip replacement during the study period. Of those eligible, 25 declined to participate. Further exclusion criteria included a lack of English language proficiency and being under 40 years of age, which left a total of 24 eligible participants. Of these, 21 returned usable surveys and were included in the final sample.

This is a descriptive sample, representing a non-probability sampling design technique. The authors chose their sample based on prospective patients at one hospital, who were available and willing to participate during the study time frame. As such, these subjects may differ from a strictly random sample of the general surgical population.

Ridge and Goodson followed 21 subjects out to three months post-surgery. For this type of quantitative study, where researchers look for...

However, even with a smaller than ideal sample size, researchers did find a number of statistically significant outcomes.
The study used three data collection instruments: the Sickness Impact Profile (SIP), which measures individual perceptions of functional health status; the Hip Outcome Tool, meant to assess the success of the hip replacement procedure; and a measure of patient pain and mobility at discharge. Patients completed both the SIP and Hip Outcome Tool twice, one month preoperatively and three months postoperatively. Pain was self-reported and mobility was measured by a physical therapist, both at discharge.

Ridge and Goodson followed subjects already planning to undergo surgery and only included subjects who agreed to participate. While their sampling methods safeguard the ethical rights of subjects, they may somewhat limit the validity of the study. To generalize these findings, a second study should use a larger sample that better reflects the characteristics of the wider…