Critique of a Research Study Week 3 Assignment

Quantitative Critical Appraisal

To commence this quantitative analysis the start point was to formulate a robust quantitative question in order to provide direction for the literature search. Newell & Burnard (2006) suggest that a strong question informs the research design, research method, the population, the intervention and the outcomes of interest. There are three factors for focusing questions

1. Facilitating the search for relevant evidence,

2. deciding whether the evidence is applicable to the group in question, and

3. sorting best evidence from weaker, less valid evidence (LoBiondo-Wood et al, 2002).

The question was framed around the elements of PICO; standing for "patients," "intervention," "comparison," and "outcome" (Boston...