Research Critique: Obesity in Children
NURS-6052N-36 Essentials of Evidence-Based Practice
Research Critique: Obesity in Children
The nursing profession views research as a vital part of promoting growth and innovation to current nursing practices. Utilizing a variety of methods to support health-related issues to establish concrete conclusions is often challenging to determine the right research methodology. The purpose of research is to sift through what approach can offer solutions best related to the complex issues the patient may face. Polit and Beck (2017, p. 741) state Qualitative research is defined as “the investigation of phenomena, typically in an in-depth and holistic fashion, through a collection of rich narrative materials using a flexible research design” as well as, Quantitative research is defined as “the investigation of phenomena that lend themselves to precise measurement and quantification, often involving a rigorous and controlled design”. Because of these two different approaches, the purposes of this paper will be to provide an extensive critique on both qualitative research as well as quantitative research and techniques between each one and how the collection of data, analyzation, and overall research is conducted and viewed.
Types of Research
Analyzing qualitative research against quantitative research involves the same basic starting points. Determining what information is needed will guide the path for researchers to conduct a study. Data that consists of numbers for analyzation vs. behavioral interpretations need to be deciphered for the appropriate analysis (Polit & Beck, 2017). Qualitative research studies are subjective data that is gathered from interviews and experiences and generally are collected over a determined period (Polit & Beck, 2017). Because of this; these studies tend to show bias or determine the results can be skewed due to the nature of the subjective data gathered. Quantitative research studies generally are statistical measurements and involve numerical analysis that can be converted into the necessary information the researcher is trying to gain (Polit & Beck, 2017). The qualitative study reviewed in this paper by Taylor (2013), and the quantitative paper in comparison by Schroeder (2018), will be reviewed and compared in regards to obesity in children and the effects of childhood obesity as a whole.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Research Approaches
The articles chosen for this paper have both advantages and disadvantages, in both qualitative and quantitative research approaches. Qualitative research in the article by Taylor (2013), informs the reader that the researcher gathered information on the behaviors of adolescent girls who are victims of obesity. The study looked at the behaviors of 20 Hispanic girls and how their diet, behaviors, and perception about obesity were related. Although the data can be skewed because interviews may not be truthful, accommodations can be made to the research materials like questionnaires to determine a more concrete research design. The quantitative approach gathered numbers and statically data environmentally about obesity. In this approach, Schroeder (2018), provided quantifiable numbers associated with the data gathered and it seems to be accurately analyzed and interpreted openly and objectively. However, the disadvantage is that the link between obesity and poverty as well as lack of treatment adherence give reference to low sample size. Because the number of girls studied kept changing the data may not be accurate as the researcher may believe.
Is Qualitative Research Real Science?
Among the research community, this is a famous claim, siding that this is the methodology of choice. The claims against research that a qualitative study may not be real science can be disputed. Polit and Beck (2017), state that understanding relationship variables requires examination and utilizing a qualitative approach to collect data then formulating the analyzation of the data with a quantitative approach. Quantitative methods conclude and lean towards the randomized control trials (RCT) methods which tend to be the most popular way to study research in the health care setting. Researchers tend to view qualitative studies as a different science solely upon the insights into the behaviors of the study subjects themselves (McDonnell & Garbers, 2018). Valuable data about the tendencies of this population is paramount to this type of study; it guides the researcher on behaviors vs. population.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the qualitative research article by Taylor et al. (2013), appropriately analyzed behaviors of adolescent obese Hispanic girls and how their diet and their perception of dieting was reviewed. Furthermore, the quantitative research article by Schroeder et al. (2018), revealed there was significant numerical data to explain the correlation between adverse childhood experiences (ACE) and obesity. By comparison, the quantitative study used a meta-analysis approach and produced a more comprehensive study of the results over the qualitative research study. In order to critique studies, nursing professionals must have basic knowledge about the different types of studies and how the design of the study will derive the result.
References
McDonnell, C. J., & Garbers, S. V. (2018). Adverse childhood experiences and obesity: Systematic review of behavioral interventions for women. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice & Policy, 10(4), 387–395. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1037/tra0000313
Polit, D. F., & Beck, C. T. (2017). Nursing research: Generating and assessing evidence for nursing practice (10th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer
Schroeder, K., McCormick, R., Perez, A., & Lipman, T. H. (2018). The role and impact of community health workers in childhood obesity interventions: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Obesity Reviews: An Official Journal Of The International Association For The Study Of Obesity, 19(10), 1371–1384. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1111/obr.12714
Taylor, S. A., Garland, B. H., Sanchez-Fournier, B. E., Allen, K. F., Doak, J. S., & Wiemann, C. M. (2013). A Qualitative Study of the Day-to-Day Lives of Obese Mexican-American Adolescent Females. Pediatrics, 131(6), 1132–1138. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1542/peds.2012-2114
Critique Template for a Qualitative Study
NURS 6052N-36
Week 6 Assignment: Application: Critiquing Quantitative, Qualitative, or Mixed Methods Studies (due by Day 7 of Week 7)
Date: January 13, 2019
Your name: Tracy Newman
Article reference (in APA style):
Taylor, S. A., Garland, B. H., Sanchez-Fournier, B. E., Allen, K. F., Doak, J. S., & Wiemann, C. M. (2013). A Qualitative Study of the Day-to-Day Lives of Obese Mexican-American Adolescent Females. Pediatrics, 131(6), 1132–1138.
URL: https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1542/peds.2012-2114
What is a critique? Simply stated, a critique is a critical analysis undertaken for some purpose. Nurses critique research for three main reasons: to improve their practice, to broaden their understanding, and to provide a base for the conduct of a study.
When the purpose is to improve practice, nurses must give special consideration to questions such as these:
• Are the research findings appropriate to my practice setting and situation?
• What further research or pilot studies need to be done, if any, before incorporating findings into practice to assure both safety and effectiveness?
• How might a proposed change in practice trigger changes in other aspects of practice?
To help you synthesize your learning throughout this course and prepare you to utilize research in your practice, you will be critiquing a qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-methods research study of your choice.
If the article is unavailable in a full-text version through the Walden University Library, you must e-mail the article as a PDF or Word attachment to your Instructor.
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH CRITIQUE
1. Research Issue and Purpose
What is the research question or issue of the referenced study? What is its purpose? (Sometimes ONLY the purpose is stated clearly and the question must be inferred from the introductory discussion of the purpose.)
The purpose of the study is to create interventions for Hispanic adolescent females struggling with obesity and if there are patterns to the daily routine. The referenced study focuses on adolescent obesity.
2. Researcher Pre-understandings
Does the article include a discussion of the researcher’s pre-understandings? What does the article disclose about the researcher’s professional and personal perspectives on the research problem?
The article does not touch on the researchers personal or professional perspectives. It does, however, touch on the understandings from behavioral and environmental factors playing a role in Hispanic adolescent girls and obesity being a growing problem in a pre-conditional research viewpoint.
3. Literature Review
What is the quality of the literature review? Is the literature review current, relevant? Is there evidence that the author critiqued the literature or merely reported it without critique? Is there an integrated summary of the current knowledge base regarding the research problem, or does the literature review contain opinion or anecdotal articles without any synthesis or summary of the whole? (Sometimes the literature review is incorporated into the introductory section without being explicitly identified.)
This literature review is current, published in 2013, and the information provided is relevant to the study. After review, it seems as if the author merely reported the information without critique as there seems to be no mention of critiqued articles. The literature review contains statistics on childhood and adolescent obesity, gender, race, cultural aspects, so it seems to fulfill the research problem knowledge base. As well, the introduction of the paper states a summary detailing current knowledge informing the reader of such.
4. Theoretical or Conceptual Framework
Is a theoretical or conceptual framework identified? If so, what is it? Is it a nursing framework or one drawn from another discipline? (Sometimes there is no explicitly identified theoretical or conceptual framework; in addition, many “nursing” research studies draw on a “borrowed” framework, e.g., stress, medical pathology, etc.)
This was an area I felt was lacking. The literature did not mirror or reference another for comparison.
5. Participants
Who were the participants? Is the setting or study group adequately described? Is the setting appropriate for the research question? What type of sampling strategy was used? Was it appropriate? Was the sample size adequate? Did the researcher stipulate that information redundancy was achieved?
The study participants consisted of twenty adolescent females who are considered morbidly obese according to weight, along with their families and come from the Hispanic/Mexican American culture. The setting was appropriate for this study. The sample size although seemed small, turned out appropriate for the study. The strategy used was appropriate for this age, gender and type of study and I did not notice a redundancy pattern.
6. Protection of Human Research Participants
What steps were taken to protect human research subjects?
All of the participants, adolescents and their families were given informed consents, and those were signed and collected before the study was conducted.
7. Research Design
What was the design of the study? If the design was modeled from previous research or pilot studies, please describe.
The research design used in this study was a qualitative study design. The study consisted of interviews, questionnaires, and surveys to collects the necessary and relevant data needed for the topic of obesity in adolescent Hispanic girls. It was guided from a past qualitative study but leaned on different queries.
8. Data Collection/Generation Methods
What methods were used for data collection/generation? Was triangulation used?
For this study, the researchers did not use triangulation. Instead, they used a set of carefully thought out and researched set of interview questions, along with planned surveys and detailed questionnaires to gather the pertinent data needed.
9. Credibility
Were the generated data credible? Write my Essay Online Writing Service with Professional Essay Writers – Explain your reasons.
Because the questions were reviewed before the study began and researched to the validity, the data does seem to be credible, as were the actual questions. Some redundancy in responses was noted but not enough to skew the data, and the overall accuracy of the data collected seemed to be useful and accurate in the end for the study.
10. Data Analysis
What methods were used for data analysis? What evidence was provided that the researcher’s analysis was accurate and replicable?
Data was gathered and then placed into multiple chats and tables and then analyzed for more essential readings. Analysis derived from the readings was shown that the information compared to the research knowledge.
11. Findings
What were the findings?
The study participants revealed four main findings after the study was complete.
• The impact of normal adolescent female development
• The physical and emotional challenges of the adolescent
• Excess calories from multiple sources are a cause of obesity
• Difficulties the families face in helping to manage adolescent obesity
12. Homework help – Discussion of Findings
Was the discussion of findings related to the framework? Were those the expected findings? Were they consistent with previous studies? Were serendipitous (i.e., accidental) findings described?
As for mentioned, a theoretical framework was not described. However, the findings reflected previous research studies that had been done. The results were expected and easily understandable.
13. Limitations
Did the researcher report the limitations of the study? (Limitations are acknowledgments of internal characteristics of the study that may help explain insignificant and other unexpected findings, and more importantly, indicate those groups to whom the findings CANNOT be generalized or applied. It is a fact that all studies must be limited in some way; not all of the issues involved in a problem situation can be studied all at once.)
Because of the specific nature and sensitivity of sample subjects selected in this study, the results were not able to be generalized and left limitations very minimal.
14. Implications
Are the conclusions and implications drawn by the author warranted by the study findings? (Sometimes researchers will seem to ignore findings that don’t confirm their expectations as they interpret the meaning of their study findings.)
Yes, the researchers of the study determined with the findings that the implications and conclusions were derived from the study findings.
15. Recommendations
Does the author offer legitimate recommendations for further research? Is the description of the study sufficiently clear and complete to allow replication of the study? (Sometimes researchers’ recommendations seem to come from “left field” rather than following obviously from the discussion of findings. If a research problem is truly significant, the results need to be confirmed with additional research; also, if a reader wishes to design a study using a different sample or correcting flaws in the original study, a complete description is necessary.)
I did not see any recommendations by the authors in this review.
16. Research Utilization in Your Practice
How might this research inform your practice? Are the research findings appropriate to your practice setting and situation? What further research or pilot studies need to be done, if any, before incorporating findings into practice to assure both safety and effectiveness? How might the utilization of this research trigger changes in other aspects of practice?
This type of research is useful in nursing, as well as my area in child protection. Obesity is often linked with poverty. Not only can this be a teaching avenue to educate parents of Hispanic youth, but also the youth of any culture. Targeting severe causes and effects of child and adolescent obesity can be educational overall in our country. Further research is necessary and utilizing these research findings can help trigger lifestyle changes for cultures across the board and educate those to seek out new areas of research on this topic and others like it.
Critique Template for a Quantitative Study
NURS 6052N-36
Week 6 Assignment: Application: Critiquing Quantitative, Qualitative, or Mixed Methods Studies (due by Day 7 of Week 7)
Date: January 13, 2019
Your name: Tracy Newman
Article reference (in APA style):
Schroeder, K., McCormick, R., Perez, A., & Lipman, T. H. (2018). The role and impact of community health workers in childhood obesity interventions: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Obesity Reviews: An Official Journal of The International Association for The Study of Obesity, 19(10), 1371–1384.
URL: https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1111/obr.12714
What is a critique? Simply stated, a critique is a critical analysis undertaken for some purpose. Nurses critique research for three main reasons: to improve their practice, to broaden their understanding, and to provide a base for the conduct of a study.
When the purpose is to improve practice, nurses must give special consideration to questions such as these:
• Are the research findings appropriate to my practice setting and situation?
• What further research or pilot studies need to be done, if any, before incorporating findings into practice to assure both safety and effectiveness?
• How might a proposed change in practice trigger changes in other aspects of practice?
To help you synthesize your learning throughout this course and prepare you to utilize research in your practice, you will be critiquing a qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods research study of your choice.
If the article is unavailable in a full-text version through the Walden University Library, you must e-mail the article as a PDF or Word attachment to your Instructor.
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH CRITIQUE
1. Research Problem and Purpose
What are the problem and purpose of the referenced study? (Sometimes ONLY the purpose is stated clearly and the problem must be inferred from the introductory discussion of the purpose.)
The problem referenced in the study is childhood obesity and if adverse childhood experiences (ACE) playing a factor. The purpose of this research was to determine if ACE causes obesity in children and adolescents, focusing on those in extreme situations.
2. Hypotheses and Research Questions
What are the hypotheses (or research questions/objectives) of the study? (Sometimes the hypotheses or study questions are listed in the Results section, rather than preceding the report of the methodology used. Occasionally, there will be no mention of hypotheses, but anytime there are inferential statistics used, the reader can recognize what the hypotheses are from looking at the results of statistical analysis.)
From the results of the study, it can be determined that adverse childhood experiences (ACE) and obesity do have a distinct correlation without an explicit hypotheses statement.
3. Literature Review
What is the quality of the literature review? Is the literature review current? Relevant? Is there evidence that the author critiqued the literature or merely reported it without critique? Is there an integrated summary of the current knowledge base regarding the research problem, or does the literature review contain opinion or anecdotal articles without any synthesis or summary of the whole? (Sometimes the literature review is incorporated into the introductory section without being explicitly identified.)
The literature review is current, published in 2018. The article had a good summary of current information and was relevant to the information provided. A systematic review of different studies was also referenced and considered.
4. Theoretical or Conceptual Framework
Is a theoretical or conceptual framework identified? If so, what is it? Is it a nursing framework or one drawn from another discipline? (Sometimes there is no explicitly identified theoretical or conceptual framework; in addition, many “nursing” research studies draw on a “borrowed” framework, e.g., stress, medical pathology, etc.)
Neither theoretical or conceptual framework were identified in this literature.
5. Population
What population was sampled? How was the population sampled? Describe the method and criteria. How many subjects were in the sample?
The sample population was quite extensive in 2,729 participants total, all having suffered some adverse childhood experience (ACEs) which are traumatic experiences occurring before age 18 that include; physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect (physical or emotional), and can include the witnessing or being involved in dysfunctional family interactions. They were randomized clients.
6. Protection of Human Research Participants
What steps were taken to protect human research subjects?
All of the study participants were given informed consent and signed before entering and participating in the study.
7. Research Design
What was the design of the study? If the design was modeled from previous research or pilot studies, please describe.
Nine studies were of quantitative design and met the criteria for this review, the majority of these studies had a meta-analysis design angle.
8. Instruments and Strategies for Measurement
What instruments and/or other measurement strategies were used in data collection? Was information provided regarding the reliability and validity of the measurement instruments? If so, describe it.
Across the nine studies, commonly utilized measures were:
• Symptom Check List-90 – 90 item self-report symptom inventory that provides an assessment of psychological symptoms as well as current psychological distress
• BSI Symptom Inventory – a smaller version of the above scale
• Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale – 10 items self-report instrument that provides an assessment of individual self-esteem
9. Data Collection
What procedures were used for data collection?
The data was collected from the above questionnaires and compiled for the study as well as interviews and group therapy notes.
10. Data Analysis
What methods of data analysis were used? Were they appropriate to the design and hypotheses?
Meta-analysis was the main avenue for data analysis, and that became a bit cumbersome, so it changed to systematic review. Utilizing a quantitative procedure where research design and variables all determined the design of the study was deemed appropriate in the end.
11. Interpretation of Results
What results were obtained from data analysis? Is sufficient information given to interpret the results of data analysis?
The results determined a link between obesity and poverty as well as the primary concern being adverse childhood experiences (ACE). Underlying risk factors for obesity can be derived from the physical nature in which a child resides.
12. Homework help – Discussion of Findings
Was the discussion of findings related to the framework? Were those the expected findings? Were they consistent with previous studies? Were serendipitous (i.e., accidental) findings described?
There was no clear framework identified in the study. The results regarding the adverse childhood experiences were most favorable to what was determined and expected by researchers. The overall study and systematic review were in correlation to the different studies mentioned.
13. Limitations
Did the researcher report limitations of the study? (Limitations are acknowledgments of internal characteristics of the study that may help explain insignificant and other unexpected findings, and more importantly, indicate those groups to whom the findings CANNOT be generalized or applied. It is a fact that all studies must be limited in some way; not all of the issues involved in a problem situation can be studied all at once.)
Some limitations were lack of treatment adherence, and it did not limit the geographical area in which the study took place.
14. Implications
Are the conclusions and implications drawn by the author warranted by the study findings? (Sometimes researchers will seem to ignore findings that don’t confirm their hypotheses as they interpret the meaning of their study findings.)
The conclusions and implications were warranted by the findings of the study and were deemed appropriate.
15. Recommendations
Does the author offer legitimate recommendations for further research? Is the description of the study sufficiently clear and complete to allow replication of the study? (Sometimes researchers’ recommendations seem to come from “left field” rather than following obviously from the discussion of findings. If a research problem is truly significant, the results need to be confirmed with additional research; in addition, if a reader wishes to design a study using a different sample or correcting flaws in the original study, a complete description is necessary.)
The author does offer suggestions for further study details about treatment adherence, sample sizing, and sample grouping. The researchers also mention grouping according to the adverse childhood experiences to see if that lends any other details.
16. Research Utilization in Your Practice
How might this research inform your practice? Are the research findings appropriate to your practice setting and situation? What further research or pilot studies need to be done, if any, before incorporating findings into practice to assure both safety and effectiveness? How might the utilization of this research trigger changes in other aspects of practice?
As a nurse in an emergency shelter, this study was appropriate for this line of work. It is imperative that nurses are educated and educate the youth as well as the caregivers of these youth in child protection about the dangers of childhood obesity along with the other factors of the unfortunate events they have faced in their early childhood years. Not only do these children face the hurdles of neglect, abuse, and abandonment, they often face obesity as a result.
