Research Critiquing

Research Critiquing

Screening Questions

Question 1

Yes

Question 2

Yes the study was based on RCT and it was appropriately used by the researcher.

Structure of Randomized Control Trial

Is it worth continuing?

Yes, because the end result is positively supporting the set hypothesis of the study and showed that treatment group which was exposed to imagery CDs, have noticed a slight improvement in pain and episodes of urgency as compared to those who are not being exposed to imagery CDs.

Detailed Questions

Question 3

The study was based on levator examination which was done by nurse practitioner by physically examining the patients with pelvic pain. The pain was rated on 0-10 visual analogue scale (VAS). Respondents were recommended to take stable medication treatment and also ensure that they have not participated in any other trial from past 30 days. On the first visits, 30 respondents (women) were randomized by the staff members who randomly selected folders from the shuffled set of folders that were named as “treatment group” or “control group”. The process was purely random as the staff members of the research were not being involved in the study and were unaware of such information. Due to pilot study and funded internally by various sources, the researchers decided to take 15 participants in each group in order to gather and develop preliminary data for further research study in future.

To schedule randomization in a clinical trial where several factors including stratification are necessary, block randomization is unclear as to the balance of strata and also poses a logistical problem. A recent method of Randomization by minimization with hierarchical stratification reduces this imbalance. It then requires the establishment of a hierarchy and stratification factors the maximum permissible imbalance at each level of stratification. Also, the allocation of processing is performed by a weighted lottery, with a higher weight for the treatment reduces the imbalance. The treatment assignment is used by dynamic balanced randomization, with a weight for the greater which treatment reduces the imbalance.

In this research study, the two groups were equally divided in 15 respondents. Treatment group were exposed to imagery CD twice a week for 8 weeks. On the other hand, control group was provided with relaxation sessions with no exposure of imagery CDs. This randomization selection of participants bring stratification among groups and intervention but end results showed that only 11 out of 15 women fully attempted the process of treatment whereas, from control group, the rate of response was much greater than treatment group which is 14 out of 15. This brought imbalance between the two groups and thus, showed results of unevenly distributed participants.

Question 4

Can't tell, as a matter of fact that blinding is not always applicable and implied in real life examination scenario, we cannot assume that all staff members, study personnel and participants were not known or understand about what is actually happening. It is necessary for this type of study to work in blinding as if participants come to know the actual purpose of the treatment; they ...