RESEARCH PROJECT
STEP 6 WITH AN EXAMPLE
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FURTHER GUIDANCE ON HOW TO PRESENT YOUR FINDINGS AND DISCUSS THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR ACTION IF ANY

You should already have your  data presented in tables and text.

Correct any errors that may have been pointed out to you in the previous step..

You now need to discuss your findings.  This should be approached in the following manner:

Discuss findings both descriptive and analytic  (associations you have found) in themselves and also by comparison with the other published findings.

For associations you have found you can apply the Bradford-Hill criteria (see Block 1 materials) to discuss whether these associations are likely to be causal or not.

You then need to discuss the limitations of your study which are that you studied the wrong subjects, or typically not enough subjects, not enough data points, less than perfect study design or response rate from subjects, not complete because you ran out of time, possibly biassed measurements or  results that  you could not control or eliminate,  not do the best possible or most sophisticated analysis etc. etc..

Lastly, you need to summarise all these aspects of your discussion and come to your considered conclusion about what your findings mean.

You are entitled at this point to some speculation on your study topic even if you can't back it all up with evidence from your findings.

You should think of how these findings can be practically implemented in the workplace to improve prevention of problems and health and safety generally.

You can think about what research would be needed to investigate your study topic further.