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Re: Topic 3 DQ 1

Cunningham,E.L., McGuinness,B., Herron,B., & Passmore,A.P.(2015). Dementia. The Ulster Medical Journal, 84(2), 79-87. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4488926/

The strength of this article lies with its addressing the epidemiology and socioeconomic impacts and pathophysiology features o dementia as well as the processes of the clinical diagnosis. The authors conclude that that to achieve better biomarker and drug development requires an in depth understanding of the pathophysiological processes. On the other hand, the weaknesses it seems to mostly generalize on the health issue of dementia focusing on diagnosis and treatment process and not on first hand patient experiences.

Chertkow,H.,Feldman,H.H., Jacova,C., & Massoud,F.(2013). Definitions of dementia and predementia states in Alzheimer’s disease and vascular cognitive impairment: consensus from the Canadian conference on diagnosis of dementia. Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy, 5(1),2. Retrieved from https://biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/alzrt198

The article applies the framework of the Canadian Consensus Conference on the diagnosis and treatment of Dementia to assess new definitions of dementia and predementia states in Alzheimer’s Diseases and vascular cognitive impairment. The key strength of the article is to help guide medical professionals as well as the healthcare system in diagnosis and treatment of dementia in clinical and research settings. The weakness though is non-application of quantitative and qualitative data on real life participants as this would further strengthen research on the definitions of dementia.

Cations, M., Radisic,G., Crotty,M., & Laver,K.E.(018).What does the general public understand about prevention and treatment of dementia? A systematic review of population-based surveys. PLoS One, 13(4). Retrieved from https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?d=10.1371/journal.pone.0196085

The main strength of this article is the integration of credible studies by MEDLINE, EMBASE, Psych INFO to establish the level of public knowledge on dementia. This helps to ensure there is public awareness and thus success for policy making in healthcare to improve care for dementia patients. The weaknesses, however, lies in the fact that the literature used was not conclusive given its geographical and cultural limitations.

Kazui H., Yoshiyama, K., Kanemoto,H., Suzuki,Y., Sato.S., & Tanaka,T.(2016). Differences of behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia in disease severity in four major dementias. PLoS ONE, 11(8).Retrieved from https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0161092

The authors utilize the Neuropsychiatric Inventory data for patients with dementia and vascular dementia with a bid to establish the behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia to enhance prognosis and treatment of patients. On the other hand, the weakness of this article is that it is majorly based on statistics which thus require expert interpretation inaccessible to the general public.

Shaji, K.S., Sivakumar, P.T.,Rao,P., & Paul,N.(2018).Clinical practice guidelines for management of dementia. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 60(3), 312-328. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih,gov/pmc/articles/PMC5840907/#_ffn_sectitle

Shaji et al.,(2018) capitalizes on the framework on the assessment and follow up of older people with dementia with the aim of promoting the clinical needs of the patient. However, its weakness as affirmed by the authors is that the framework only addresses a specific population of dementia patients given that each patient is different in diagnosis and environmental conditions thus it cannot be used as a medical standard.

Sabayan, B., Sorond, F.,(2017).Reducing the risk of dementia in older age. JAMA, 317(19).Retrieved from https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2626575

The authors provide invaluable information regarding how dementia can be treated and focus on three areas including lifestyle habits, medical conditions and mental and social wellbeing. This goes towards engaging the public to take first approach in preventing the disease since there is no definite cure. Their weakness, though, is that the article offers more recommendations on generalized views and ideas of dementia and would have been useful if it used statistics of real life examples of people who have beaten dementia.

References

Cunningham,E.L., McGuinness,B., Herron,B., & Passmore,A.P.(2015). Dementia. The Ulster Medical Journal, 84(2), 79-87. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4488926/

Chertkow,H.,Feldman,H.H., Jacova,C., 7 Massoud,F.(2013). Definitions of dementia and predementia states in Alzheimer’s disease and vascular cognitive impairment: consensus from the Canadian conference on diagnosis of dementia. Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy, 5(1),2. Retrieved from https://biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/alzrt198

Cations, M., Radisic,G., Crotty,M., & Laver,K.E.(018).What does the general public understand about prevention and treatment of dementia? A systematic review of population-based surveys. PLoS One, 13(4). Retrieved from https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?d=10.1371/journal.pone.0196085

Kazui H., Yoshiyama, K., Kanemoto,H., Suzuki,Y., Sato.S., & Tanaka,T.(2016). Differences of behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia in disease severity in four major dementias. PLoS ONE, 11(8).Retrieved from https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0161092

Shaji, K.S., Sivakumar, P.T.,Rao,P., & Paul,N.(2017).Clinical practice guidelines for management of dementia. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 60(3), 312-328. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih,gov/pmc/articles/PMC5840907/#_ffn_sectitle

Sabayan, B., Sorond, F.,(2017).Reducing the risk of dementia in older age. JAMA, 317(19).Retrieved from https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2626575

Re: Topic 3 DQ 2

Methods for Evaluating Evidence

It is imperative to appreciate the fact that what constitutes high-quality evidence varies depending on the questions asked and should be aligned with the needs and interests of the user or users. However, once evidence has been gathered, it must be evaluated against the outcome that could either be long-term or short-term (Jonas, Ferrari, Wines, Vuong, Cotter & Harris, 2018). The quality of every piece of evidence that is needed to provide answers to particular questions must be evaluated on the basis of established criteria for evaluating evidence. There are two methods of evaluating evidence. They are symmetric review and meta-analysis.

The symmetric review entails assessment and evaluation of research studies that address a particular topic under consideration. By using this method, a researcher a well-organized method to locate, assemble, and evaluate a body of literature regarding a particular topic by using a set of specific criteria. This method typically includes describing the findings of the research conducted (Jonas et al., 2018). Elsewhere, meta-analysis combines data from different studies. In other words, it is a statistical process of combining the findings from different individual studies. From example, when effects of treating a particular disease are consistent from one research to the next, meta-analysis is used to identify the common effects.

There are several similarities between symmetric review and meta-analysis. For example, both of them are methods used in evaluating the evidence before it can be used in decision making. On the other hand, the difference between the two methods is that symmetric review seeks to answer a defined research question and this is achieved through collecting and summarizing all the evidence that fit in the eligibility criteria (Kelly, Vaughn & Anderson, 2016). , on the other hand, uses statistical methods to summarize the findings of the findings. Equally, when inconsistencies are identified under symmetric studies, meta-analysis can be used to identify the reasons for the variations.