Article Critique Controlled Trial of a Behavioral Intervention

Question :

A randomized, controlled trial of a behavioral intervention to prevent sexually transmitted disease among minority women.

Answer :

1. It is an applied study as it tests the interventions. The information presented in the study can be used by clinics and health units in reducing the occurrences of STDs in women belonging to African-American and Hispanic community.

2. The researchers use only quantitative strategy for the study.

3. The study was true experimental design. The researchers collected data directly from the clinical tests and not engaged in any question and answering session with the participants.

4. It was a prospective study. It was a six to 12 months time period study where the focus was on watching the outcomes.

5. Researchers collected the data themselves. 

6. The sample size was 947 women belonging to African-American and Hispanic community.

7. Yes, the article has discussed how the subjects were selected. The researchers selected the candidates who had non-viral STDs and those who were able to speak and understand English. 

8. Yes, the article discussed the method of data collection. At every visit of the patients, a physical examination was conducted by the registered nurse. The data was collected by the researchers after the tests that were found positive. 

9. Some STDs are asymptomatic in nature, which means that their symptoms are often unnoticed and thus a person may not even know if they are infected ("Sexually Transmitted Diseases", 2020). And as the researcher depended on patients’ understanding that they should visit the clinic in next 6 or 12 months if they see any symptom of STDs, so it would be difficult to identify.

10. One validity issue was that the researchers had no control over the patients making relationships with other individuals. Second issue was that some patients delayed in following the prescribed instructions.

11. The selected approach will be mixed as it will help gain in-depth understanding of the participant’s situation as well as assess outcome on quantitative terms. The research hypothesis is that risk of STDs can be reduced significantly with increase in individuals’ knowledge related to self-care. The study design will be longitudinal. Target population will be that of this selected article. Random sampling will be used to choose the sample. Inclusion and exclusion criteria will be the same as that of the selected article, that is women who have STDs and who can understand speak English. Interview will be used to collect data. One example of operationalization of variables is Having STDS - patients who have chlamydial, syphilis, or gonorrheal infection. Further, in order to resolve the confounding variable, which is the Asymptomatic nature of STD, the patients will be called in at least every two months for medical examination for next 12 months to ensure that the issue is identified medically instead of only depending on the understanding of patients. A bias that will be ensured to keep under control is the assumption that the patients will do exactly as they are told to do. It is a concern for the study because if the patients will not follow the guidelines prescribed to them, then it will be difficult to conclude whether prescription worked.

Article #2: A family support service for homeless children and parents: users’ perspectives and characteristics

1. Applied. Implication is that the procedure can be implemented to improve the situation of homeless children and parents. 

2. Both.

3. Non-experimental

4. Prospective-panel

5. Primary data collection by researcher

6. 55 eligible, 49 participated

7. Homeless children and their families were selected who were admitted in statutory hostels in Birmingham, UK

8. Questionnaire for quantitative data and interview for qualitative data was used.

9. Education level of parents was not considered in the study

10. Researchers focused only on interviewing main carers, and mostly the mother of the families. But there is a possibility that mother does not know everything. Another is the size of the sample. It is too low, merely 49. It does not seem sufficient to be representative of real life situation.

11. Mixed research approach would have been used as it gives opportunity to gain in depth insight as well as gather calculative data as well. One hypothesis would be that proper education and improving the ability to socialize helps in feeling of isolation and loneliness. Longitudinal design would be used to understand the impact over a longer period of time. Target population will be the same as the article. The sample would be selected using a random sampling method. Inclusion and exclusion criteria would match that of the selected article. Final sample size would be at least 5-10% of actual homelessness in the UK, that is, 7000 to increase representativeness (Busby, 2020). Data collection would involve questionnaire for quantitative and interview for qualitative data. For operationalization of variables, education of participants can be taken. Here, education refers to the formal education of the individuals such as whether they are graduate, undergraduate, or left school before completing high school, and other levels. The confounding variable education levels would be considered for control. Every member of the family would be interviewed to understand the actual situation instead of handpicking few of the members to reduce biases. Also, sample size would have been made representative of UK’s homeless data.

References

Busby, M. (2020). Homeless households in England rise by 23% in a year. Retrieved 13 March 2020, from https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/dec/18/homeless-households-in-england-up-by-23-in-a-year-official-figures

Sexually Transmitted Diseases. (2020). Retrieved 13 March 2020, from https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/sexually-transmitted-diseases