Article Review and Critique Essay.

Article Review and Critique Essay.

 

The following is the review and critique of the article by Aakhus et al. (2015) on how to reorient evidence-based depression interventions for the elderly to bring them in line with determinants of practice. According to the researchers, this tailoring was to enable the successful implementation of the interventions by overcoming foreseen barriers.Article Review and Critique Essay.

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The Title

After reading the whole article, it is the opinion of this author that the title given to the study is appropriate and adequately describes it. This is because the study is basically about evidence-based interventions for managing depression in the elderly. This is captured in the title. The study is also about bringing the interventions in line with determinants of practice (ostensibly to make them more effective and easier to implement). This aspect of the study is also captured in the title. Indeed, the title catches the author’s attention in how it is framed.Article Review and Critique Essay.

The Abstract

The abstract of the article by Aakhus et al. (2015) indeed contains the content that is required in an abstract. These include the study purpose, the methodology or study design, the major findings, and the conclusions made from the findings. However, this abstract surpasses the recommended word count for abstracts which is between 150-250 words. Some journals allow up to a maximum of 300 words. This particular abstract is a whole 350 words and therefore does not conform to the required standards. It is quite difficult to summarize a whole study like this into just 150-250 words because all the important details of the study must be included in the abstract while observing the recommended word limit.Article Review and Critique Essay.

The Introduction

The authors of this study conducted it to find out how they can tailor the interventions for depression to fit with determinants of practice (which act as barriers to implementation) for better adherence and patient outcomes. They state that “Knowledge about determinants of practice can guide efforts to develop and choose interventions that are tailored to address those determinants…” (Aakhus et al., 2015, p. 1). The audience that might be interested in this study are general practitioners (GPs) and nurses (Aakhus et al., 2015). This includes psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioners or PMHNPs.Article Review and Critique Essay.

The feeling of this author is that the research problem is indeed significant enough to warrant a journal article. They did not have a “so what” reaction and do not question the acceptance for publication of the article. The justification is that the research problem has significant implications in clinical practice for patient outcomes. The review of literature in the introduction of the study helped this author to understand the study to a great extent.Article Review and Critique Essay. This is because the authors went to great extents to compare their study with similar previous studies in terms of sampling, methodology, and analysis. This also helped put the study in context. For instance, they used the studies by Aakhus et al. (2014) and Wensing et al. (2014). As a matter of fact, the researchers clearly address the similarities and difference between this study and the previous others. What this research intends to add is the specificity of the interventions to elderly depression with regard to determinants of practice. Aakhus et al. (2015) do not expressly state their research questions or hypotheses. These are however implied and include (i) what are some of the barriers to medication adherence in elderly depression patients presented by determinants of practice? (Question), and (ii) Evidence-based interventions tailor-made to determinants of practice have a positive correlation to medication adherence and better patient outcomes in elderly depression patients (hypothesis).Article Review and Critique Essay.

The Methodology or Design

The specific qualitative method used was group interviews conducted using a questionnaire instrument and taped for better analysis. A qualitative research design corresponds to research questions in that the questions must address a particular behavior that is observable. For this particular study, the design seems appropriate. Although not expressly stated, the design can answer the research questions to a considerable extent that makes the study viable. This is because of the thorough group interviews that were taped for later in-depth analysis. The key concepts being explored in the study were adherence to interventions and barriers to implementation of interventions (Aakhus et al., 2015).Article Review and Critique Essay. The measures used in the research were those of training interviewers who then conduct the interviews and record while making observations. This author is of the opinion that the methods used to collect data in this study are clear and well explained to allow for replication in another study. This conviction comes from the researchers’ thorough description of the sampling, the sample, the methodology, and the data analysis and interpretation. Article Review and Critique Essay.

Research reactivity (observer effect) and bias prevention has not been expressly addressed by the researchers of the study by Aakhus et al. (2015). For this reason, it cannot be confidently stated that these were managed and therefore it is possible that the study has some errors due to reactivity and bias. There were attempts to provide information on the trustworthiness and credibility of the measures used in the research. This was in the form of comparison to existing literature. However, this information does not appear to be adequate because of its general nature and lack of specificity. In all, there were no clear strategies that were used to establish credibility. There was however some evidence of peer consultation since the researchers extensively referred to the Tailored Implementation for Chronic Diseases (TICD) project which was a multinational study and which this study was a follow-up to (Aakhus et al., 2015).   Article Review and Critique Essay.

The Sampling

The participants to the study were selected out of convenience (non-random sampling). The sampling strategy used was therefore convenience sampling. The authors did not offer any justification for the sample size at all. If done, this could have been along the lines of cost or suitability (meeting the inclusion criteria). Because of this sampling strategy, the author of this paper is not satisfied with the information reported about the sample.Article Review and Critique Essay. This is because the demographics of the sample are not clear. Some of the questions about the sample that might have not been addressed are (i) what is the age bracket of the sample? (ii) What is the level of education of each of the respondents, and (iii) how well do the respondents know about mental illness. As stated above, the demographics of the participants are not described in sufficient detail. This may affect the evaluation of the research in that observed characteristics or responses are better explained by taking into account the demographic characteristics of the respondents such as age, sex, education, and race. The particular sample for this study was not reflective of the population from which it was chosen.Article Review and Critique Essay. This means that it is not representative of the general population and this therefore impacts the validity and reliability of the research. Representativeness is important in every research. If the sample is not representative as in the case of Aakhus et al. (2015), the research findings can neither be replicated nor generalized to the entire population in clinical practice. There are ethical concerns in the research about autonomy and informed consent which are vital considerations for any research (Entwistle, 2019). This is because the researchers state that they had to recruit relatives of elderly patients with depression to respond on behalf of the patients. Article Review and Critique Essay.

The Results

The data was analyzed using only a five-step framework comprising of (i) familiarization (ii) identification of a thematic framework (iii) indexing (iv) charting; and (v) mapping and interpretation (Aakhus et al., 2015). The descriptions supporting findings were not descriptive enough and the context was not adequately described. There is no evidence from the article of corroboration of findings such as by triangulation to increase the validity and credibility of the research. I would recommend corroboration of the findings with those of similar research done using random sampling instead of a convenience sample. This author finds that the research procedures for this study improved the trustworthiness of the findings to a very small degree (not very convincing).Article Review and Critique Essay. It was not easy to understand the reporting of the results at all. For instance, how did the chosen interventions improve patient outcomes in elderly patients with depression? How were the determinants of practice modified by the chosen interventions to favor adherence to interventions? This author did not find the findings easily applicable to their population of practice and area of specialty/ practice. As a matter of fact, the limits of transferability are very wide because the incongruency of the findings to this author’s setting is glaring. Of course, despite the apparent flaws of the research stemming from the sampling and methodology; some useful information can still be found for social workers and managers. This is especially true with regard to the literature review done in the study background.Article Review and Critique Essay.

The Discussion

In a way the authors attempted to make sense of their findings in their discussion section. However, this discussion tends to veer more towards information that should have been in the methodology section and therefore loses its meaning as well as the reader. The conclusions drawn from the study appear reasonable, although there is some disconnect with the conduct and findings of the study.Article Review and Critique Essay. To their credit, the authors discussed the limitations of their study in some length. The problem is that they did not stay within the limitations of their findings. What they did was make more of their findings than warranted by again veering off on a tangent towards information that should have been put in the methodology and analysis sections. Indeed, the researchers discussed implications for future research and practice as is required at the end of the article. There were no surprises in this section as the researchers chose to stick to recommending research on the tailoring of interventions to determinants of practice for better patient outcomes. This was the aim of their study at the beginning of it. Article Review and Critique Essay.