Article Critique: Effects of music therapy on anxiety of patients with breast cancer after radical mastectomy: A randomized clinical trial

Article Critique

Aim of the research

This paper intends to study the effects of music therapy on the anxiety of female patients with the breast cancer after radical mastectomy.

Research design

The research is conducted with the randomized controlled clinical trial design. This research studies two groups of women with breast cancer who have gone through radical mastectomy. One group is intervened by the music therapy as well as also facilitated with the routine nursing care. On the other hand, other group was only provided with the routine nursing care (Li, et al. 2012). In a randomized, controlled study design the effects of therapy (intervention) and a control treatment are compared and assigned to the patient by one of the two randomization groups (Bryman, 2008, pp. 44-68). The patients in the control group treated either with another therapy or placebo. The randomized controlled trial is the gold standard for assessing the impact of a health intervention. It assesses the impact of this intervention, using a direct comparison with a group that does not receive the intervention or who receives another intervention (Sibbald and Roland, 1998, pp. 316-201). Blinding could have benefited the study because blinding of the patients is as important if could have the setting for the treatment effect on its reliability when taking the test medication (compliance), or even the response to treatment. If only the patient or only the investigator regarding the assigned treatment was blinded, then is called a single-blind study (Viera and Bangdiwala, 2007).

Sampling

The participants of the study are the patients with breast cancer who are admitted to the oncology centre of a general hospital in Xiana, China. Sample of this research is consisted of 120 women with the breast cancer and were randomly sleeted (Li, et al. 2012). The experimental sample should possess the attribute to represent the population of inference for which it must meet two requirements: the randomness and adequate sample size (Viera and Bangdiwala, 2007). The participants were randomly selected for the two group categories include experimental and control group.

Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

Once obtaining a sample is determined, researchers often limit the characteristics of the individuals included in the sample, and which is subject to the following criteria: - the inclusion criteria, which almost always include the age, or, for example, the set of diagnostic parameters for a particular clinical condition. In this study the women were recruited under the criteria of females aged between 25 and 65 suffering from breast cancer and acquiring radical mastectomy (Li, et al. 2012). Exclusion criteria represent the other side of the coin. These criteria, by which certain persons are excluded from the study even if they are part of the sample and meet the criteria for inclusion, to bring-to create a group of subject's uniform and clearly defined, but this has little relationship with the real clinical world, making the difficult-generalization (Onwuegbuzie and Danie, ...