Assignment 3
Types of research studies and design;
These are all from published reports/papers. Please type your answers for your final submitted version and use complete and clear sentences. No bullets and no one word answers except for the “1 pt.” questions, where appropriate. In some cases the selections have been edited to remove obvious answers J.
Types of research studies and design
1. Since marijuana legalization, pediatric exposures to cannabis have increased.1 To date, pediatric deaths from cannabis exposure have not been reported. The authors report an 11-month-old male who, following cannabis exposure, presented with central nervous system depression after seizure, and progressed to cardiac arrest and died.
Myocarditis was diagnosed post-mortem and cannabis exposure was confirmed. Given the temporal relationship of these two rare occurrences – cannabis exposure and sudden death secondary to myocarditis in an 11-month-old – as well as histological consistency with drug-induced myocarditis without confirmed alternate causes, and prior reported cases of cannabis-associated myocarditis, a possible relationship exists between cannabis exposure in this child and myocarditis leading to death.
In areas where marijuana is commercially available or decriminalized, the authors urge clinicians to preventively counsel parents and to include cannabis exposure in the differential diagnosis of patients presenting with myocarditis.
Types of research studies and design
A. What kind of study is this and why is it used here? (2pts)
B. What is the comparison group? (2pts)
C. What is the measure of effect (if any)? (1pt)
2. Background: The aim was to study whether number of visits to emergency department (ED) is associated with suicide, taking into consideration known risk factors. Methods: This is a population-based study nested in a cohort. Computerized database on attendees to ED (during 2002-2008) was record linked to nation-wide death registry to identify 152 [suicides], and randomly selected 1520 [non-suicides].
The study was confined to patients attending the ED, who were subsequently discharged, and not admitted to hospital ward. Odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of suicide risk according to number of visits (logistic regression) adjusted for age, gender, mental and behavioral disorders, non-causative diagnosis, and drug poisonings. Results: Suicides had on average attended the ED four times, while [non-suicides] attended twice. The OR for attendance due to mental and behavioral disorders was 3.08 (95% CI 1.61-5.88), 1.60 (95% CI 1.06-2.43) for non-causative diagnosis, and 5.08 (95% CI 1.69-15.25) for poisoning. The ORs increased gradually with increasing number of visits.
Adjusted for age, gender, and the above mentioned diagnoses, the OR for three attendances was 2.17, for five attendances 2.60, for seven attendances 5.97, and for nine attendances 12.18 compared with those who had one visit. Conclusions: Number of visits to the ED is an independent risk factor for suicide adjusted for other known and important risk factors. The prevalence of four or more visits was 40% among [suicides] compared with 10% among [non-suicides] . This new risk factor may open new venues for suicide prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Types of research studies and design
A. What type of study is this and why might they have used this design? (2pts)
B. Describe the comparison groups. (2pts)
C. Summarize and describe the results in “lay” terms – but still quantitatively. (4pts)
3. There has been no worldwide XXXXXXXXXXXXX study on suicide as a global major public health problem. This study aimed to identify the variations in suicide specific rates using the Human Development Index (HDI) and some health related variables among countries around the world. In this XXXXXXXXXX study, we obtained the data from the World Bank Report 2013.
The analysis was restricted to 91 countries for which both the epidemiologic data from the suicide rates and HDI were available. Overall, the global prevalence of suicide rate was 10.5 (95% confidence intervals: 8.8, 12.2) per 100,000 individuals, which significantly varied according to gender (16.3 in males vs. 4.6 in females, p < 0.001) and different levels of human development (11.64/100,000 individuals in very high development countries, 7.93/100,000 individuals in medium development countries, and 13.94/100,000 individuals in high development countries, p = 0.004).
In conclusion, the suicide rate varies greatly between countries with different development levels. Our findings also suggest that male gender and HDI components are associated with an increased risk of suicide behaviors. Hence, detecting population subgroups with a high suicide risk and reducing the inequality of socioeconomic determinants are necessary to prevent this disorder around the world.
Types of research studies and design
A. What type of study is this and why might they have used this design? (2pts)
B. Describe the study population. (2pts)
C. Should suicide rates have been standardized and why or why not? (2pts)
D. What is the best interpretation of these results and why? (2pts)
Types of research studies and design
