Minority Women
[University Title]
Interventions that Increase Use of Pap Tests among Ethnic Minority Women
Introduction
Researchers, authors, and academicians spend time in numerous endeavors in the pursuit of finding answers to questions on relevant topics and issues like health-related issues. Nevertheless, despite the effort and resources consumed to pursue the study a number of these pursuit requires extensive analysis and evaluation to determine the validity and accuracy of information. For this reason, a systematic review of an article published relating to the use of Pap tests among ethnic minorities.
Systematic Review Report
There will be eight sections analyzed for this report. There sections would include the following: (a) the problem, (b) the employed search strategy, (c) the selected sample, (d) the merits of quality appraisal, (e) the efficiency and effectiveness of used data extraction methodology, (f) the applied data analysis technique and methodology, and (g) the assumed conclusion. The selected research for this systematic review critiquing is entitled “Interventions that increase use of Pap tests among ethnic minority women: a meta-analysis” (Han, et al., 2011).
The Problem
Search Strategy
The Sample
As far as the sample is concerned, since the subject was too broad to include female ethnic minority, it is believed to be inadequately substantiated. The researchers could do so much better in identifying the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The authors did, however, fell short on expounding the relevance of using the selected sample. The strength and limitation of the choices were not mentioned in the paper. The authors did not categorically explain the relevance of focusing on the ethnic minority. While the choice to concentrate on women is perfectly justified by the topic, the demographic criteria were not given attention by the authors nor was it explain. There was no specified discussion that the authors sought the permission of previous authors and there was no clear discussion that previous authors were consulted.
Quality Appraisal
If there is one thing that the authors should be given credit for, that would have to be taking into consideration several important attributes of a good research. The majority of researchers, especially those which utilized a selection of materials and data from previous research studies, the authors of this paper had been very vigilant in appraising the quality of the resources they have utilized. A “study quality rating scale” was presented in Table 1 on page 344. There were two independent quality appraisers used by the researchers which allowed for a non-biased evaluation of the resources used in the study. The “study quality rating scale”, also known as the appraisal matrix was adequately defined and despite using abbreviations the authors managed to make everyone explain it appropriately.
Data Extraction
Data extraction was possible using a statistical treatment using meta-analysis. If reviewed and analyzed the authors would reveal how they were well trained in selecting the statistical tool that was to be utilized to generate the right answer. Nevertheless, as far as the demographic data was a concern, the authors again failed to expound on other factors and other merits which could be helpful in the study. In reference to the outcome and the data extraction technique, there seemed to be a great complimentary relationship between the selected variables. There is also reason to assume that the data and information do not tamper as there is more than one person who examined the integrity of the results.
Data Analysis—General and Quantitative
Analysis of the results should involve making justifying results and conclusion which supposedly is accomplished through the use of an appropriate statistical treatment. Furthermore, the authors also named the statistical tool or software that they applied—STATA (StataCorp LP, College Station, TX). There were also tables used in the study which allowed for ease in evaluation and analysis especially since the authors used numerous studies to interrelate. The use of meta-analysis was justified in this case considering the premise of the study and the specified objective of the study.
Conclusion
Overall, there was a good summative discussion of the findings which led to a solid conclusion that answered the purpose of inquiry relating to the effectiveness of the identified intervention. In addition, the authors did not fail to state the limitation of their study which is relevant for studies to be initiated in the future.
References
Han, H.-R., Kim, J., Lee, J.-E., Hedlin, H., Song, H., Song, Y., & Kim, M. (2011). Interventions that increase use of Pap tests among ethnic minority women: a meta-analysis. Psycho-Oncology, 341–351.
