How to write an abstract as an innovation or as a best practice
An abstract for this Public Health Conference Malaysia is a clear summary of either research or an innovative project or a best practice. If you have never presented an abstract before we are prepared to help you to write one since we are interested in giving you a chance to share your unique experience in our conference.
Title of the Abstract
Choose a title that reflects the key focus of the project/research.
The contents of the abstract have to be as follows.
- Introduction
- Objectives
- Methodology
- Results
- Conclusions
Please note you have to follow these five headings for us to maintain the consistency of the format of the abstract book. What you choose to include under these five headings may vary according to your wish.
How to write an Introduction ?
This may be a brief outline of the situation / issue / problem / gap / event / process or aspect that precipitated the project or the best practice that you have adopted. Make sure you reserve only a few sentences to the introduction.
How to write Objectives ?
Write exactly what were your aims were i.e. exactly what you intended to do.
How to write Methodology for an Innovative Project or Best Practices ?
In the case of a research project, the usual information may be an essential summary of study design, study setting, study population, sample, sample size, sampling methods, instruments, data collection, data analysis, etc.
However, if you want to present an innovative project you have undertaken as an abstract, the format may differ. Here, methodology may include what you did (the project / intervention / action); the development of the project (did you design it / was it replicated or modified from elsewhere); where you did the project (setting) and how you did it (who participated in the project / their roles / resources / community participation; instruments used, advocacy) etc.
How to write Results for an Innovative Project or Best Practices
In a research abstract, the results do follow the usual standards. In an intervention project, the results may mean input indicators (the resources used), process indicators (eg. number of volunteers trained, number of sessions conducted, number of training programs conducted, etc.), output indicators (eg. number of institutions improved, number of people trained) and outcome indicators (eg. the percentage of lowering of disease burden, reduction of incidence of diseases, percentage of increasing the favorable health practices etc.).
How to write Conclusion for an Innovative Project or Best Practices
This may be what you learned from your project or your decisions based on the findings. You may outline the implications for practice that arose from the intervention and summarize key points of advice for other health care workers. You may write the problems / challenges you faced and how you tacked them. You may state whether your findings could be generalized to other settings as well.
