Study Critique Term Papers Example

Abstract: The present paper focuses on the examination and presentation of the study conducted by one of the most influential medical institutions – the University of Michigan Medical Center. Thus, the study with its results, including statistical data, is summarized. However, the paper goes beyond the summary in the sense that it explores the significance of it and tries to project its future applicability. Furthermore, some key medical concepts are also discussed in regards to the study in question.
The research that will be dwelt upon in the paper dealt with the medical condition known as congestive heart failure. Congestive heart failure being an urgent health problem has affected lives of approximately two million of the United States citizens alone and the number of the congestive heart failure patients has been constantly growing. The study took it for a basic premise that the urgency of the problem is also demonstrated by serious risk factors to which the patients are subjected. Thus, one of the aims of the study was to scientifically explore and research these risk factors and their relation to methods of treatment applied. In other words, the study was interested in answering the question whether there are some treatments, in particular the one involving enelapril, that are potentially dangerous for the patients leading to their hospitalization and even death.
The initial hypothesis was that since the mortality rates among patients are high the medicine ought to come up with new ideas. Indeed, opposing the flawed conventional methods is the method propounded by the authors of the conducted research. Its essence is based on the use of angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitor, enelapril. Enelapril was supposed to reduce mortality.The study, nevertheless, does not make its aim to popularize enelapril. On the contrary, the authors want to present its possible drawbacks as well. In this respect the analysis between enelapril use and hospitalization and death incidence is conducted.
The sample size of the study is a ten page article where the major points are reflected. The sample presents the information in clear and precise way. Furthermore, it is buttressed by the available data and graphs.
The design of the study is as follows: the study begins with careful introduction of the problem and available means of its resolution. Then the outline for the research is shaped. Beyond this is the main body of the article with the consideration of the problem in connection to the new research. In other words, it can be stressed that the utility of the study is in the fact that it endeavors to unite the old methods to new ones and this approach seems to be effective and productive as will be shown below.
The problem being congestive heart failure can be treated by hydralazine and isosorbide dinitrate as well as placebo or prazosin given to patients. The study comes to a conclusion that the first method of treatment presents fewer risks to the patients and some statistics is cited in this respect. According to the study, the treatment by angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitors while is very promising should be subjected to the observation by the medical circles. And, as has already been stated above, it is exactly the thing that the study is doing by paying special attention to the particular type of angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitor, namely enelapril.
The target audience for the research was randomized: congestive heart failure patients were chosen absolutely on the random basis from the 83 hospitals which were under the careful scrutiny of medical centers of the United States, Canada, and Belgium. However, the head institution which analyzed the data was lying within the United States. On the other hand, it can be said that co-operation between different countries was most certainly beneficial for the project.
Indeed, the focal point of any study is data. Depending on the methods used in obtaining them as well as the interpretation techniques, the study may be successful or unsuccessful. The data level measurement can also shed some light on the research in question. Actually, four major levels of data measurement are distinguished: nominal measurement, ordinal, interval and ratio levels.
The study mainly uses nominal measurement since in it the numbers are supposed to classify the data. Actually, among the important data obtained was the information on the causes of the patients’ deaths. Nominal measurement in this particular case was predetermined by classifications done by the principal investigator. As a basis for such classification the blinded review surrounding circumstances of the patients’ deaths was applied.
Hospitalization data were depicted in the patients’ chart and thoroughly monitored. They were related to the data of every patient’s visits to hospital which contained information on the development of the disease and the patient’s condition before and after the visit. The primary diagnosis at discharge after hospitalization served as the major indicator of treatment effectiveness.
The procedural part of the study was closely intertwined with the division of patients in two groups. The first group was given only placebo while the second group apart from placebo treatment was subjected to enalpril treatment. The whole time span of treatment constituted nearly three years – from June 1986 to March 1989. During this period of time the mortality and hospitalization data were being obtained in the two groups. Then it all went to the principal investigator in the medical institution where the peremptory analysis of the data was conducted until the data were finally collected in the center. The mortality data in particular were classified according to whether death was linked to the congestive heart disease or was brought on by any other reason.
Among the data that were of crucial importance were total mortality, causes of death, hospitalization for heart failure and all hospitalizations’ rate. The statistics obtained as the result of the study can show that patients who were treated by enalpril fared much better than their counterparts. Justifiability of such a conclusion can be backed up by the above stated indicators which were the objective of the study. Thus, mortality percentage is presented by the following numbers: 43.5% for the group of patients who were using only placebo and 33.8% for patients of the second group. So the study shows that there is a rather significant risk reduction.
As for the data on hospitalization rates, they stand as follows: 36% for the first group and 31% for the second one treated by enalpril respectively, or to put it otherwise: there were 2833 hospitalizations in the placebo group and 2396 in the enalpri group. Also the study provided information on the causes of deaths as the result of failed hospitalization. Besides, speaking of death causes, the stress was essentially put on the causes determined by the congested heart failure as opposed to other cardiovascular deaths. Among the latter the cardiac deaths were the most prevalent.
It can be concluded that the study that has been scrutinized in the paper is on the cutting edge of the modern medicine and science. Without exaggeration it can be described as a very comprehensive approach to such a serious condition as congestive heart failure. The main idea that can be derived from the study is that the enalpri treatment for the disease ought to be paid special attention to since it most likely really reduces the risk of death for the patient though some further research in the field is definitely needed.