represented within the studies, thereby reducing selection bias with regards to race. Wang et al. (2013) and Holmedahl et al. (2014) took the measurements at a hospital sleep center. Azuma et al. (2014) obtained study subjects from an urban wholesale company in Japan, with the measurements coming from portable monitors worn at the office and at home over the course of one week. Stanchina et al. (2013) used records from hospital outpatients. The remaining studies used measurements taken from university sleep laboratories. Various inclusion/exclusion criteria were applied throughout the studies. Studies such as Holmedahl et al. (2014) and Venkateswaran et al. (2014) intentionally excluded patients with only OSA. Wang et al. (2015) and …show more content…
(2013) (the study with the largest sample size) found a statistically significant difference in the average age of their patient groups (COPD-only, OSA-only and OS). Such differences in demographic data opens the possibility of confounding variables, muddying any analysis. However, other studies had no differences in mean age between the different groups, suggesting that chance or the selection criteria may be playing a large role. Another potential issue is that each study had its own inclusion and exclusion criterion, introducing a risk of bias. For instance, Azuma et al. (2014) only included male subjects in his study, severely limiting the generalizability of its findings. Furthermore, the study also excluded asthmatic patients only by history. Since a post bronchodilator was not used in spirometry testing, asthmatics may have been unknowingly included, thereby possibly clouding the results. Three of the studies included population sizes smaller than 100 people, with Wang et al. (2013) ranking the smallest with 44 test subjects. Small sample sizes increase the risk of chance skewing the results, where the risk decreases with a larger population. Lacedonia et al. (2011) included a fairly small population of 72 people. However, they were broken into five groups: OS, COPD-only, OSA-only, and thin and obese controls. As such, the already small group of 72 people was broken up into subgroups of about 15 each. Once again, with such tiny groups chance is
Based on this idea, Eyer et al. (2009) conducted a study to identify clinical characteristics and
The major security principles are integrity, reliability and confidentiality. These three principles present a platform for establishing and applying industrial business security principles for the prevention and protection of IT structures. The three security principles are the foundation of a coherent ISMS framework as they offer a guideline for its growth.
10. The researchers stated that this was a 12-week longitudinal, randomized clinical trial pilot study with 28 women over 65 years of age with the diagnosis of OA. What are some of the possible problems or limitations that might occur with this type of study?
Sleep quality — defined as the ease in falling asleep and length of uninterrupted sleep — was also higher for whites than for blacks.” Sleep quality is advanced for the white race than it is for the African American race, helping to demonstrate that sleep habits depend on race. This article in the New York Times, was able to help attest that there is a direct relationship between race and sleep habits through the amount of hours each race is able to sleep comfortably. Some claims have circulated that sleep habits are strictly based on surroundings and stress levels, which is proven wrong through the Document published by The Huffington Post, “Sleep Influence By Race, Ethnicity, and Country of Origin.’ This document states,” National Health Interview Surveys between 2004 and 2010 and found that those born in the United States were more likely to report sleeping longer than the recommended seven to nine hours each
However such quantitative data could be viewed as subjective due to the self-diagnosis of individuals rather than that of a clinical diagnosis. et al. Approximately 65% of all discharges were in the 65 years and older population in 2014. This data indicates that Harry falls into the typical age range for males who are at highest risk of LLI. COPD is an important cause of hospitalization in our aged
When looking at individual-based studies, one is looking at a smaller group of individuals and determining if they reach a specific outcome based on being exposed to a risk factor. With this information, an inference is made about the general population to determine if the stated exposure affects their chances on having the expected outcome that is discussed in the study. Since it is not a true representation of the population however, an investigator runs the risk of not having an accurate representation of the data in terms of the general population.
When experiencing a specific sleep problem, Blacks/African-Americans say they are more likely to speak with their doctor (16%) or research online (10%) than to get recommendations from friends or family (4%). Asians (15%) are the most likely to say they get advice from family and friends. Respondents were also asked if their healthcare professional or doctor had ever asked them about their sleep during a routine visit. At least four in ten Whites (48%), Blacks/African-Americans (42%) and Hispanics (40%) say yes; however, only 28% of Asians had been asked about sleep by their doctor (National Sleep Foundation,
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is currently defined as a progressive, but preventable and treatable disease that affects a person’s ability to breath. According to a recent statistical report done by Ford et al. (2013), the prevalence rate for COPD in the United States in 2011 was 13.7 million adults (Ford et al., 2013). The report stated that the majority of individuals diagnosed with COPD are over 45 years of age, with the highest number of individuals being 55-64 years of age. Furthermore, the authors found that women are more often diagnosed than men. In terms of prevalence based on race, the report indicated that non-Hispanic white individuals are more likely to be diagnosed with COPD than non-Hispanic African Americans or
A significant finding from this study is that MRSA groin carriers have a higher risk of SSI compared to nasal and axillary MRSA carriers (Sasi et al., 2015). The result of the experiment showed that 10 out 21 (47.6%) treated MRSA carriers developed an SSI while only nine out 24 (37.5%) untreated MRSA carriers developed SSI (Sasi et al., 2015). This finding is the part where the author thinks that the non-randomization of samples could have affected the study outcome. The additional one person who developed SSI despite undergoing decolonization treatment in the study group resulted in a 10.1% difference in the effectiveness measurement. This result looks very significant if one looks at it percentage-wise, but when looking at the actual numbers 10 SSIs out 21 treated subjects in the study group and nine SSIs out 24 untreated subjects in the control group, it will raise a red flag that there could have been a possibility for bias since the results are too close.
Weakness in the study is that it allowed participants in with previous cardiovascular events to be able to participate in the study. Though the article further stated that it excluded participants specifically with AMI events in the last 12 months, it allowed patients with history of angina to participate (MacIntyre, 2015). The weakness that I see in this decision is that there is a possibility that individuals with angina cases were misdiagnosed as something less severe than what they actually have (MacIntyre, 2015). Limited Variation in ethnicity could also be considered a weakness in this study. Listed below is the statistical breakdown displaying percentages of total participants for cases as well as for controls.
Robbins et al. (2012) discuss in “Pilot Intervention to Increase Physical Activity Among Sedentary Urban Middle School Girls: A Two-Group Pretest-Posttest Quasi-Experimental Design” whether girls in one school that receive nurse counseling plus after-school physical activity club showed a greater improvement in physical activity, cardiovascular fitness, and body composition than girls in another school assigned to an attention control condition. The purpose was to determine whether intervention provided a significant effect to physical activity, cardiovascular fitness, and body composition. The between-subjects conditions were: the group of girls (n = 38) receiving nurse counseling plus after-school physical activity club versus the
Those populations were suffering from chronic medical conditions such as rates of diabetes, hypertension, prior myocardial infarction, and persistent asthma positive for
a. The study was conducted in accordance with the ‘Recommendations Guiding Physicians in Biomedical Research Involving Human Subjects’ in the 1989 Declaration of Helsinki.
Education is low amongst youth in grades three through eighth. Statistics show that these students have a ten percent English Languages Arts proficiency and fourteen percent Math proficiency (New York City Community Health Profiles, 2015). Adults twenty-five years and older, only about nineteen percent are college graduates and nearly half have a high school diploma or some college education (New York City Community Health Profiles, 2015). The other thirty-five percent have less than a high school education (New York City Community Health Profiles, 2015). Fernando saw school as boring and corny which lead him to drop out of the ninth grade. He mentioned that his strengths were that he was smart and a quick learner which allowed him to make
Irrespective of how sophisticated statistical techniques and data processing capabilities are, if epidemiologists do not pay attention to the quality of the data obtained in investigations and the data is questionable, the conclusions drawn will be invalid(L Gordis, 1979). Therefore, epidemiologists pay attention to their measures and they do this by whenever possible choosing measures that have been used effectively in previous studies to measure both suspected risk factors and disease outcomes. In some cases, the validity and reliability of the instruments are known thereby allowing to some extent, the assessment of, and even correction for, possible bias and misclassification (Szklo & Nieto, 2014). A challenge in utilizing previously