Free Paper Sample on Epidemiological Study

Introduction

An epidemiological study is a scientific study that measures the risk of an illness in an exposed population compared to its risk in an identical or unexposed population. The essence of conducting this study is reducing the possibility of the disease spreading to a population that is not exposed or reducing the emancipation that the disease may re-emerge in the inflicted population (Merali & Schein, 2020). There are several medical studies conducted in the world on various geographical, scope and medical problems. However, each research study is specific in its epistemological underpinning, the structure and model and even result in presentation and layout. For instance, an epidemiological study that uses a quantitative research method to investigate a social phenomenon in terms of ratios, prevalence and commonly affected groups. In contrast, a qualitative epidemiological study digs deep into the problem as well as the employment of a quantitative approach to investigate the issue (Rodlund, 2020). Therefore, this article critique seeks to evaluate the method or technique used in Cigarette Smoking and the Risk of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma: A Meta-analysis of Epidemiological Studies their significance and weaknesses in an epidemiological study.

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Study Design

This study was conducted using a meta-analysis approach to investigate the effect or role of cigarette smoking in the human body. The meta-analysis approach is a mixed-method used by researchers to collect information from already published articles, journals, publications or other research work. This approach seeks to compare the results and findings of other studies and collectively combine them as one approach with a rather complicated process of research but a well-defined output of the products.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this research study was to evaluate the role of cigarette smoking and risk factors that it causes to patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). The course provided strong evidence on the relationship between cigarette smoking and the risk it cases to people with NPC. For instance, this study combined several pieces of research collected from PubMed archives as well as other online libraries to provide a well-structured epidemiological result of cigarette smoking.

Sampling, and Data Collection Methods

Cigarette Smoking and the Risk of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma: A Meta-analysis of Epidemiological Studies employed secondary data collection from PubMed online and the Cochrane Library of relevant studies published before or on February 2016(Long et al., 2017). The data collection and sampling method was a case-control design in which 342 articles were identified from the sites. Three hundred two papers were eliminated as they were not relevant to the study based on outcome or title. 40 articles remained plus an additional three from the reference lists. The 43 articles were assessed for eligibility through the evaluation of the full text. In this case, 17 articles were eliminated based on an unclear approach used, while five others were published after February 2016. Therefore, the researchers remained with 21 articles that fulfilled the selection criteria, that is, 17 case-control studies and four cohort studies.

The Rationale

The first rationale for using this research design, sampling technique, as well as secondary data collection is cheap to get the secondary data from online sources as well as time-saving, especially in the collection of data. Secondly, meta-analysis provides the research with a wide array of information, techniques and a broader view of the story results in interpretation and general overlook of the study. Lastly, meta-analysis is essential as it provides the researcher with a defined search or rigid material of investigation. For instance, the study only investigated sources or articles with case-control or cohort studies, thus reducing the possibility of having inaccurate results of the study. This method enhances the efficacy of selection, output as well as recommendation development of the study.

Strengths of the Design and Methods

This research design and method of information collection have three significant strengths. First, meta-analysis comprises newly published studies being included or evaluated to provide the research with the most recent literature on the study topic. Secondly, it is strict to its selection criteria, thus making the research develop carefulness of the literal material, search engine as well as data extraction. Lastly, the strength of meta-analysis is enshrined in its ability to analyze more than one author differently and harmonizing their research study to one complex literature material with the most significant findings.

Weaknesses of the Study Design and Method

Firstly, meta-analysis is limited in that that it provides varied results based on sources of the study subject. For instance, in the Cigarette Smoking and the Risk of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma: A Meta-analysis of Epidemiological Studies, the study presented different results from recruited studies. The research has to provide a standardized approach to categorize the products to fit in the meta-analysis effectively.

Secondly, meta-analysis is a mixture of retrospective studies and prospective studies, which presents a weakness in terms of individual participant data for adjustment of potential confounders. For instance, this study showed that the EBV was highly contagious and infectious the people with NPC risk. However, a follow-up study conducted by Hsu et al. (2009) showed that it is almost unlikely to modify the co-founders and estimate the association of smoking with NPC risk. This research design is appropriate as it enables the research to review different scholarly literature to ascertain the effectiveness of the study. For instance, Long et al. (2017) observed that majority of the old smokers of cigarette are at high risk of contracting NPC. Similarly, the method is effective as it gives the researcher an autonomy or feel will to evaluate numerous articles, journal as well as publication to select the most appropriate for the topic of investigation.

Validity of the Study

A research study is as useful as the validity of its results output. The fact of the course is evaluated by external efficacy and correlational analysis of the tests and cumulative linear relationship of the variables. For instance, this study presented the external effectiveness of 95% with 1.57 confidence intervals for heavy smokers and 1.13 for light smokers. This shows that the survey is reliable at a 95% linear relationship between smokers and NPC risk.

Reliability

Similarly, a reliability test is conducted using Cronbach’s Alpha test to test the internal efficiency of the variables. For instance, in a social science study, if the reliability test reveals more than 0.5 or 50% efficiency, the task is termed as effect to enhance policy (Wang et al., 2020). However, in epidemiology, a reliability test has to be more than 80% to provide significant results of the problem. Therefore, when meta-analysis reliability tests were conducted, this study revealed to have a reliability test of more than 95%, meaning the recommendations of the study are significant.

Conclusion

In summary, the article showed that cigarette smoking has a high correlation with a modest but statistically significant increase in NPC risk. Similarly, it showed that any effective tobacco control program would enhance or help to reduce morbidity and death caused by cigarette smoking causes. However, the article recommends more advanced studies to elucidate the NPC risk in gender, age, and histological type of former smokers.

References

Long, M., Fu, Z., Li, P., & Nie, Z. (2017). Cigarette smoking and the risk of nasopharyngeal carcinoma: A meta-analysis of epidemiological studies. BMJ Open, 7(10), e016582.
https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-016582

Merali, F. I., & Schein, O. D. (2020). Epidemiology of corneal diseases. Foundations of Corneal Disease, 307-330. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25335-6_26

Rodlund, A. (2020). Decision letter for "Social media use and depression, anxiety, and stress in Latinos: A correlational study".
https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.205/v1/decision1

Wang, Z., Wang, N., Su, X., & Ge, S. (2020). An empirical study on business analytics affordances enhancing the management of cloud computing data security. International Journal of Information Management, 50, 387-394. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2019.09.002.