Pelstat Consulting

08/01/2026

Most data analysis problems start long before data collection. If you can’t explain how your variables will be scored and analyzed, your study is already at risk. Plan first. Analyze later.

31/12/2025

This year, you will not just write research and analyse data for publication points/postgraduate/undergraduate qualifications alone. You will conduct research to solve problems, address needs and make impacts. Researches will be featured in clinical guidelines and other policy documents. There will be so many fundings for your research.

Happy New Year from all of us at Pelstat Consulting. We promise to deliver more excellently this year. We have increased our capacity to serve you better. Thank you for staying with us.

In what ways have we contributed to your success? Kindly share.

13/12/2025

13/12/2025

It is not enough for healthcare to be available, it must be accessible, meet all the essential needs, and at a cost that the community can afford. That is why we keep advocating for effective health insurance services in Nigeria.

Insurance services that will provide essential healthcare, drugs, and other health services. Also, the primary healthcare needs to be restored into its full scope. It must be well equipped with sufficient manpower and infrastructure. How many primary healthcare centres can boast of Electronic Medical Records, emergency drugs, sufficient staff, and functional laboratory? The primary healthcare should be the first point of contact but that is not what we have in Nigeria. There is need for good monitoring and evaluation and quality assurance. Nigeria health system can work, we must make it work.

02/12/2025

02/12/2025

December 1st was World AIDS Day, but it didn’t make local headlines the way it should.

Nigeria shares a disproportionate burden: as of 2020, Nigeria ranked fourth in the world by HIV prevalence (UNAIDS, 2020).

Even though we’ve seen progress toward an HIV vaccine, the experience with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy shows we must remain realistic. That’s why prevention, at primordial, primary, secondary and tertiary levels, remains critical.

Let real change begin with you. Adhere to preventive measures. Participate in awareness efforts. Stop the stigma. Support everyone living with HIV.

18/11/2025

November 14th was the World Diabetes Day.

There is a growing rise in NCDs each day, we keep sharing a disproportionate burden and yet the health systems keeps failing. The cost of care is often out of pocket and relatively unaffordable by larger proportion of Nigerians. The health insurance scope is failing largely and ineffective.

Effort should focus on prevention from the primordial and primary level. However, there should be a discussion regarding sustainable health financing policies that will ensure equitable healthcare accessibility, early detection, screening and management.

Stay healthy.

09/11/2025

Limit Building New Questionnaires When Standardized Ones Already Exist.

Standardized instruments are validated, pre-tested questionnaires used to measure things like knowledge, attitudes, quality of life, mental health, patient satisfaction, and more.

They boost the validity, reliability, and credibility of your research and make your findings comparable with global studies. They also come with clear scoring guidelines, cut-offs, and interpretation rules.

Common Examples Include: PHQ-9 (Depression), GAD-7 (Anxiety), PSS-10 (Stress), Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) – Burnout, SF-36 / WHOQOL-BREF (Quality of Life), NSNS, PES-NWI (Nursing Practice & Satisfaction), IPAQ (Physical Activity), SERVQUAL (Service Quality), Telehealth Usability Questionnaire (TUQ) etc.

Using standardized tools strengthens your research, improves comparability, and increases your chances of high-quality publication.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/pelstatconsulting_researchtools-standardizedinstruments-nursingresearch-activity-7393117455604346880-bnLb?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios&rcm=ACoAABPucVcByh2_h292LsCwmqhwKpSVDWhZgk8

Limit Building New Questionnaires When Standardized Ones Already Exist. Standardized instruments are validated, pre-tested questionnaires used to measure things like knowledge, attitudes, quality of life, mental health, patient satisfaction, and more. They boost the validity, reliability, and credib...

04/11/2025

The long nights, countless pages, and endless revisions have led to this moment.

As the Nursing Council Examination begins today, we at Pelstat Consulting are cheering for every candidate writing across the nation. You’ve prepared, now go and conquer! Enjoy grace and favour

18/10/2025

Target Population vs Study Population

Many early researchers use these terms interchangeably, but they're not the same, and confusing them weakens your research design.
Target population is the entire group you want to draw conclusions about. For example: All nurses in Nigeria (if you're studying job satisfaction among Nigerian nurses).

Meanwhile, study population refers to the subset you will actually collect data from within your research scope. For example, you selected nurses in hospitals in Lagos, Abuja, Edo. Getting this right strengthens your sampling frame, improves validity, and clarifies what your findings truly represent.

Target Population vs Study Population Many early researchers use these terms interchangeably, but they're not the same, and confusing them weakens your research design. Target population is the entire group you want to draw conclusions about. For example: All nurses in Nigeria (if you're studying jo...

10/10/2025

Choosing the wrong research instrument could invalidate your entire study.

One of the most critical, yet overlooked, decisions in research design is whether to use a standardized instrument or develop your own questionnaire. This choice directly impacts your study's validity, credibility, and defensibility.

Choose a standardized instrument when: Your construct is well-established in literature and you need proven psychometric properties. Instruments like the Beck Depression Inventory or Oldenburg Burnout Inventory offer built-in reliability, validity, and instant credibility with reviewers and examiners.

Develop a researcher-designed instrument when: You're exploring emerging phenomena, context-specific issues, or populations underrepresented in existing tools. Novel research often demands novel measurement approaches, just ensure you allocate time for rigorous validation, expert review, and pilot testing.

The hallmark of rigorous research isn't just data collection, it's measurement precision. The best studies use instruments that authentically capture the constructs they claim to measure.

What's your experience with instrument selection? Have you faced this dilemma in your research?

08/09/2025

Test-Retest Reliability: The "One Week Later" Mistake

Scenario: You created a survey to measure knowledge about a particular health condition and want to check its reliability.

Common approach:
• Give test to participants prototype
• Wait one week
• Give SAME test again

Then you wonder why the knowledge scores improved by 30% making the instrument seems as though, it is not consistent

The Problem in this is that you're not measuring reliability, you're measuring learning! over time

Here are the reasons:
Between tests, participants:
• Remember some questions/answers
• Think about topics they got wrong
• Look things up (consciously or unconsciously)

The Simple Fix:
• Preferably, for knowledge tests: Use internal consistency approaches (Cronbach's alpha, split-half) instead
• For personality/attitude scales: Test-retest works fine, these traits are more stable

Sometimes, if people are SUPPOSED to get better at something over time, don't use the same test twice to measure reliability.

Have you seen this mistake in research? What's your preferred reliability method?

Alternatively, rather than test-retest, why not consider: Parallel Forms Reliability (or Alternate Forms Reliability). This involves creating two different versions of a knowledge test that are equivalent in content, difficulty, and format. You administer both versions to the same group of people (either at the same time or with a short interval) and then correlate the scores. It directly addresses the practice effect by using different questions while still assessing the same knowledge. It's more resource-intensive as it requires developing two equivalent tests.