Introduction.
Information regarding health and disease can be complex for the ordinary person to understand. The media plays an important role in conveying this information to the general public. Stephen Mathews (2016) a health correspondent for the Mail Online recently wrote an article based on a Randomised Control Trial published in the Journal of American Medical Association. This study was about how cranberry capsules (containing an active ingredient proanthocyanidins), can help fight off Urinary Tract Infections (bacteriuria plus pyuria) in older woman living in nursing homes. They tested on 185 women and the study lasted over a year. The results led to the approval that cranberry products do not prevent UTI overall but may be effective
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This study has several strengths and limitations. The authors conducted a randomised double blinded clinical trial which is one of strongest and consistent methods to reduce bias (with confounders too) and causality; giving high probability of obtaining the true value. Another strength was the recruitment, randomisation and intervention taken place, it was carefully planned in detail e.g. assessing the legibility of nursing homes and patients and involving all healthcare staff (who were blinded). Both groups allocated were treated equally by giving the same interventions; two oral cranberry capsules and vs once a day placebo capsules. The groups were similar at the start of the trial; same sex, similar ages which was 65+ years old and all residing in a nursing home. The outcomes were measured and specified clearly, stating the evidence that both placebo and cranberry capsules did not make significant …show more content…
There are many strengths and limitations. I referred to the Robinson tool (Robinson et al, 2012) to analyse my media article for strengths and weaknesses. For Q2, the health correspondent Stephen Matthews from the mail online did cite an author from the journal paper, cited a journal and the number of subjects demonstrates he did examine the original paper. Q9 states that the article does report whomeether the findings were conclusive. This also shows the correspondent did do s scientific research. Nevertheless there are some limitations. The article is limited by the lack of background which was not detailed enough for the public to understand what the study was about. There was very brief statistics with no confidence interval and there wasn’t enough information on the method of study. Lastly, there was no sufficient information for the reader to find the original scientific article, which shows poor quality reporting. Overall, this article had lack of detail of the methodology of the original study and important facts were
This systematic review conducted by Takeda A, Taylor SJC, Taylor RS, Khan F, Krum H, Underwood M, (2012) sourced twenty-five trials, and the overall number of people of the collective trials included was 5,942. Interventions were classified and assessed using the following headings.-
The topic that I chose is interventions used to reduce catheter associated urinary tract infections(CAUTI). This type of infection is acquired from the use of urinary catheter while in the hospital. According to the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, urinary tract infections are responsible for 40 percent of all hospital-acquired infections annually, with 80% of these hospital acquired infection caused by use of indwelling urinary catheters. When any type of tubes or catheters are introduced in the body it serves as a medium for infection. Urinary catheters are used during surgery to prevent injury to the bladder. It is also used for urinary retention or bladder obstruction. The implementation of evidenced based practice when providing care
Cystitis more commonly known as a urinary tract infection (UTI) or bacteriuria is a chronic infectious disease defined as inflammation of the urinary tract including the bladder and urinary tissue. Signs and symptoms develop due to aggravated epithelial tissue that line the bladder and urinary tract effected by the bacteria infecting them. There is a greater prevalence in women than in men, however when men develop a UTI they are at greater risk for complications such as pyelonephritis or septicemia (Lehne 2013). Bauman (2013) states that 32% of women will experience cystitis in their lifetime. Lehne (2013) states that up to 35% of sexually active females will develop a urinary tract infection each year and that up to 50% of females in nursing homes have cystitis at any given time.
As such techniques were not used in this study, I defined a recurrent urinary tract infection as the presence of 2 10,000 col/ml of a single bacteria and one or more urinary symptoms occurring at least two weeks after the initial infection. This may lead to some misclassification of outcome; however, as long as the classification is not associated with the exposure(s) of interest the resulting measures of association should be biased toward the null hypothesis of no difference. The associations between hypothesized risk factors and repeat UTI were studied using multilevel contingency tables, with both stratification and multivariate techniques to control for confounding.3 I calculated six-month cumulative incidences of UTI, risk ratios (RR), and Mantel-Haenszel summary RRs. Exact 95 percent confidence intervals (CI) were calculated around each RR using the method of Gart.4 A three-level symptoms scale, (0 = no hematuria or urgency, 1 = urgency alone, 2 = hematuria and urgency) was developed and used both as a dependent and
The article cites very little of the actual facts of the study making the claims harder to accept and more susceptible to critique. The study itself seems to have overlooked some added external effects and made some assumptions critical to the issue. One factor discussed in class is the size of the study and the people comprising the study. The study size is a decent study size of 37,000. However, the study does not specify some serious factors, such as family size, the structure of the family, the age of the participants and how long the study followed children.
I found the problem with the argument of the article was there was no set argument that was clearly stated. If there was an argument in the article it was not clearly stated and I personally did not catch onto it. Altogether this was a well written article without a clear argument.
This journal was unbiased and took a scientific approach to the topic. However, it does not go very far beyond stating the details of the study, and due to a lack of a counterargument I would not consider it an all-encompassing overview of the subject. However, the information is presented with a neutral and formal tone. I would consider this a reliable source.
Today’s doctors stand overly dependent on chemical pharmaceutics when drafting treatment plans for patients. Physicians should first endorse treatment plans involving natural, homeopathic medicines, especially when aiming to solve miniscule health issues.
Urinary incontinence is the loss of bladder control and causes involuntary loss of urine. It affects many people and impacts the physical well-being, the quality of life, and emotional and social health of those affected. Many people with urinary incontinence use surgery/procedures and medication to successfully treat the condition. However, medication and surgery or medical procedures are ineffective or partially effective for some people with urinary incontinence. Thus, other urinary incontinence management strategies are required, such as containment.
...the data did not involve member checking thus reducing its robustness and enable to exclude researcher’s bias. Although a constant comparative method was evident in the discussion which improved the plausibility of the final findings. Themes identified were well corroborated but not declared was anytime a point of theoretical saturation Thus, the published report was found to be particularly strong in the area of believability and dependability; less strong in the area of transferability; and is weak in the area of credibility and confirmability, although, editorial limitations can be a barrier in providing a detailed account (Craig & Smyth, 2007; Ryan, Coughlan, & Cronin, 2007).
I believe the journal article I have chosen is credible because, peer reviewed journals are considered as the basis of academic research and professional knowledge. They present information that is in a clear and concise fashion, as a result leading to a high level of credibility. Also, the care and effort it takes to develop a publishable manuscript means it can be months between the time research is conducted and the results are even submitted for publication (Solomon, 2007). This indicates that time and effort has been put in the journal article to make the information that is being conveying to the audience authentic and that only the highest quality of research is published. The journal article that I have chose...
-The question and topic of my term project was: Should women could exercise while pregnant? If so, do the results of exercise benefit or hurt the baby? Based on the popular article, it was a positive thing to exercise during pregnancy. This popular article didn’t describe how much or how little exercise a woman should do in a certain amount of time, it only said that working-out benefited the mother’s health and the baby’s future; physically as well as mentally. I also found 3 different scientific articles that described experiments and research. These specific articles had varied results under a plethora of circumstances and/or limitations. Some results were found to be beneficial while others were negative, and even more surprising some results were even found to have a neutral or unchanging effect! My understanding of both articles was the fact that, exercise is good for both the mother and child, only if it is done under a careful and watchful eye of a doctor who knows the mother and her limitations, personally. My full conclusion of both of these articles, is that exercise is only positive and beneficial when the mother can physically make all of her goals without pushing herself and the child too far to a point of unhealthy and dangerous circumstances.
I have used this journal as a source to many of my researches before and I find them to be very reliable. Statistics stated in this particular article are well sourced, and I have not discovered any sourcing errors, as well as grammatical errors. This source is not objective, but it is not as biased as some of the other articles I have come across on the same topic. I do not believe that the article’s lack of objectivity takes away from its credibility. All of the claim are well documented, and the goal of this article is to bring light to the issue.
The outcome of each trial was standardized to an odd’s ratio; a odd’s ratio below 1.0 indicated a beneficial effect. The qualities of the trials were assessed by thee factors: randomisation, masking and data analysis. The information abo...
The editorial does not accurately depict the authors argument because of the lack of ethos. The author seems untrustworthy therefore the supporting evidence is lost in the uncertainty.