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Journal Analysis:
Students will choose ONE epidemiology study (a clinical study) from a peer-reviewed journal. The
articles must have been published within the past 6 to 12 months.
Permitted journals include:
● Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)
● New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM)
The article must be an analytical epidemiology study (eg, a clinical study) as follows:
● Randomized trial
● Cohort study (with exposed/not-exposed groups)
● Case/control study
DO NOT USE case studies/reports, review articles, nested case-control studies (unless approved by me),
meta analyses, ecological or cross-sectional studies. Be careful with articles indicating ‘prospective’ or
observational (some of these are actually prevalence studies) – look for presence of exposed/not exposed
groups if doing a cohort study.
Be cautious in your choice – if you choose the wrong type of article or an article from any other journal,
your grade on the project will be a zero. If you have a question about your article, ask before you get
immersed in it. I advise you to NOT wait until the last minute. Late work will not be accepted for any
component of this project.
A PDF copy of the article must be included with the analysis. Include the pdf with each of the two
parts of the project.
There are two parts to this project and each part is required for grade: (1) article choice / topic statement
/ study design description with explanation showing that you understand the study design type AND (2)
final report. The journal analysis is worth 15%.
1)
Article choice and topic statement will include:
● Title, author(s), journal, volume and page numbers, date of publication
○ Note, if more than three authors, list first three only and use ‘et al’ for the rest (some articles have a
zillion authors)
● Hypothesis
○ This should be expressed as an ‘if…then…’ statement. Note: this may not be obvious from the article
● Brief description of the study (no more than ~5 simple sentences)
● Brief description of study design (no more than a couple of sentences)
● PDF copy of the article
2) Final Report: Your final report must be organized as follows – divide into sections with headings and
subheadings as described below. Report will be double spaced, 11 or 12 font, and standard margins.
Use Times New Roman as your font.
1.
Title page with name of article, authors, author affiliations; journal with volume and pages, date
of publication of the journal article. Note, if more than three authors, list first three only and use ‘et al’ for
the rest.
·
Your name and date due
Organize the body of your paper using headings and subheadings (you may use my recommended
subheadings in addition to your own). Page lengths are suggested, not mandatory.
2.
Introduction - This section will be anywhere from two to three pages - Introduction must include
at least three references related to the topic and used to describe the background of the study; note
that references may come from the journal article’s reference list as used in the article’s introduction. You
may also find your own references using the library’s data bases. You must use primary references from
medical / scientific journals describing original research. This section will consist mainly of paragraphs
where you describe background.
·
Background
·
Study objectives/goals: What is the purpose of the study?
·
Hypothesis: What is the study’s hypothesis? This should be expressed as an ‘if…then…’
statement. Note that this may not be obvious from the article. Make sure that you clearly express the
hypothesis
3.
Materials/Methods – This section will be anywhere from one to three pages. Bulleted outline is
recommended for this section – must include items as indicated below. Your items may vary depending on
the nature of your study. Note that you may order your items according to the way the topics are covered
in the Materials/Methods section of the article.
·
Target population: What is the target population?
·
For cohort studies: What is the cohort? Is the cohort a defined cohort? Or are exposed and
nonexposed populations selected in another way?
·
For case-control studies: How are cases defined? What are the controls? How were they chosen?
·
For randomized trials: What is the treatment group? What is the comparison group?
·
Eligibility: What are the eligibility criteria?
·
Exposures (for observational studies): What is the exposure? How is exposure determined?
·
Outcomes: What is the outcome? Note that some studies will have two outcomes (primary and
secondary). How is outcome determined?
·
Randomization and Blinding: If study is randomized, how was this done? If double-blinded, how
was this done?
·
Comparing groups: Are the groups studied in the same way? Were participant losses minimal? If
not, what was done? Were there any potential problems observed with the control group(s)?
·
Confounders: Are there any potential confounders? If so, what are they? How did the
investigators deal with confounders?
·
Statistical Analysis: Brief description (a few sentences) of statistical analysis (or analyses) used,
including:
o Sample sizes
o Power – is the sample size sufficient to detect a difference?
o Statistical significance (p level)
o Are confidence levels included in the results?
o Methods used in the study (no more than very brief description – a few sentences) etc.
o Note: I know you are not statisticians so…if I see ‘stat-speak’, I will suspect that you copied
from the article. Note: if you ARE well-versed in statistics, please let me know. I can use your help!
4.
Study Design - Study design must be clearly stated and described (eg, cohort, case-control,
double-blinded placebo-controlled randomized trial, etc.) and illustrated by a simple diagram and using
you own words. Note that diagrams as used in the articles are not study designs – they are simply
protocols describing eligibility, loss to follow-up, etc. You will have to design your own diagram. This
is pretty challenging. When I say simple, I mean simple. Refer to power points showing study designs
– use the words of your study to fill in the study design boxes.
5.
Results – This section will be one to three pages. Use headings / subheadings (eg, Table 1,
Figure 1, etc with a very brief title for each). Don’t write a big run-on paragraph.
·
Baseline characteristics: describe the prognostic profile.
·
Description of the results must be in your own words and must be briefly and accurately stated.
You must refer to tables and figures in the article. When you describe the table or figure data, use
no more than five or six sentences. That way you will be forced to understand the data. You may
prepare your own tables or graphs (Excel) to show the results in a simple and visual way. If you include
tables or graphs you must explain the data in your own words. Do not copy/paste tables or figures into the
document unless you add a citation (refer to Chicago-Turabian for format). Note that if you want to use
color, submit your completed product as e-mail attachment (as well as printed copy). Note that a Results
section does not include interpretations of the data – the section simply states what the results are.
6.
Discussion – This section may be anywhere from two to three pages and will include the
following items. Again, use these headings:
·
Hypothesis and Overall Conclusion: Is the hypothesis supported by the data? What did the
authors conclude?
·
Strengths: What are the strengths of the study?
·
Significance: What is the significance of the study? What do the results add to the body of
knowledge in the specific area of study?
·
Limitations/Biases/Confounders: What are the imitations of the study, including potential biases?
Also, explore known types of biases related to different types of studies from what you learned from
text/power points and apply your knowledge to look for how investigators dealt with these potential
biases in your chosen study; eg, information, recall, selection, loss-to-follow-up, etc. Were there biases
you learned about from the paper? How do the investigators explore these issues? Explain clearly! What
were the confounders? How were these dealt with? Don’t just say, ‘confounders were analyzed by…’
What were the potential confounders? Can you think of any other potential confounders?
·
Generalizability / external validity: how applicable is the study to other populations? Or do results
only apply to the study population? Explain your reasoning. What do the authors say about this?
o If you are a clinician reading about this study, what would be your reaction? How might you approach
your own patients who may have a similar disease or condition?
o If your article is relevant to health care administration and you are an administrator or policy maker,
what would be your reactions to the results? How would the results impact your work?
o If you are working in public health, how would the results of a study applicable to your type of work
impact you?
7.
Miscellaneous information – Half to one page including:
·
Financial Support: Evaluate the financial support for the study – are there any potential conflicts
or biases?
·
Ethics – how are potential ethical issues handled? If a review board was involved, describe the
process.
·
Other Issues and Comments: Your own astute observations, etc. or any other questions / issues /
comments you would like to discuss. For example, if you heard the results presented at a conference, what
questions would you ask?
Your analysis is expected to be thorough, thoughtful, and analytical AND in your own words (not copied
from the article!).