Welcome to the Study Population forum!

This space is dedicated to discussing one of the most fundamental aspects of research design: defining and selecting the study population. Whether you are working on clinical trials, epidemiological studies, or health surveys, choosing who to include—and understanding why they were chosen—is critical to the validity, reliability, and ethical integrity of your research.

🧠 What Can We Discuss Here?

• Defining the study population: inclusion and exclusion criteria

• Target population vs. study sample

• How to ensure representativeness and minimize selection bias

• Justification for selecting specific populations (e.g., high-risk groups, specific age ranges, genders, comorbidities)

• Ethical considerations: vulnerable populations, informed consent

• Challenges in recruiting and retaining the right population

• Role of power calculations and sample size in selecting the study group

• Examples from published research: How study populations are justified and described

• Stratification, random sampling, and other sampling techniques

🎯 Why This Topic Matters:

Choosing the right study population affects:

• Generalizability of results

• Internal and external validity

• Reproducibility of your study

• Interpretation of outcomes

💬 Who Should Join?

• Medical students and early-career researchers

• Biostatisticians and clinical trial designers

• Public health professionals

• Peer reviewers and journal editors

• Anyone involved in evidence-based research