The literature review process is a critical element of a clinical and academic research. Its main intention is to provide a synopsis of sources explored during the phase of researching for a particular subject. It demonstrates and provides the readers the overall big picture of the study. A worthy literature review must have particular evaluations of the quality of the study, and conclusions of the research study. The literature review is important because it defines the proposed research relationship to other prior statistical research.
Additionally, the relevance and originality of the author’s research indicates the difference from other statisticians. The literature review is a presentation of crucial summary of general and specialized statistical literature with relevance to a particular subject of the research problem. It is essential that every statement must be supported by a reference to published statistical literature. According to USC Libraries, it is important to identify the areas of prior research to preclude replication of effort (USC Libraries, 2014). Use of Literature Review.
The literature assessment in this article introduces information relating to the most common causes of death in asthma patients, COPD and non-respiratory hospitalized patients. According to the researchers, the causes of death in asthma patients are inadequate and could use more information. Moreover, the authors are determined to choose this particular study due to the post epidemics of asthma mortalities during the 1990s. Although many research and studies have validated a consistent decrease in mortality from the previous years, the probable causes of death are still not well understood.
Additional studies have proven the decline of deaths was because of standard implementation of clinical practice guidelines and the increasing utilization of inhaled corticosteroids for asthma maintenance. Meanwhile, the researchers formulated a study design with a mindset of two objectives; to determine the causes of death of patients with asthma compared with those of patients with COPD; and to establish a possible relationship between deaths from asthma and cardiovascular diseases (Soto-Campos, Plaza, Soriano, Cabrera-Lopez, Sanchez, Oliva, Serrano, Quincoces, Galo, & Santos, 2013).
On the other hand, researchers have uncovered more information in the cause of death among COPD patients. Respiratory failure, cardiovascular diseases, serious exacerbations, and bronchopulmonary malignancies have been authenticated as the major cause of mortality in this particular group. Ethical Considerations for Data Collection In any research, it is important to consider being objective as opposed to being subjective for a fair review of the study. Personal biases and opinions should never be an obstruction in the research process.
Researches such as surveys and observations are best conducted anonymously. Furthermore, it is necessary for the researchers to be mindful of not causing any harm, whether psychological, financial, or social harm to the participants. In a clinical research setting, humans are the most commonly involved subjects in the process. In this study, the information collected was demonstrative because most of the Spanish population deaths occur in hospitals. Sixty eight percent of deaths occur in hospitals with certain regional geographic variation.
There are various ethical codes that protect the anonymity of the participants. An example is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, also known as, HIPAA. It is crucial to abide to this law as its main purpose is to protect personal medical information and recognizes the rights of the patient. In this particular study, the researchers adhered to the protocol that was approved by the central ethics committee of Hospital of Jerez abiding by the rules of the Helsinki Declaration.
The clinical records of all deceased patients were reviewed, and the following data were collected: demographic data; existence of risk factors for cardiovascular diseases (smoking, diabetes, arterial hypertension, obesity, hyperlipidaemia); and specific causes of death, distinguishing specifically lung cancer within neoplastic disorders, the pneumonia within infections; and within cardiovascular disease, peripheral arteriopathy, ischemic cardiopathy, cerebrovascular disease or heart failure.
(Soto-Campos, Plaza, Soriano, Cabrera-Lopez, Sanchez, Oliva, Serrano, Quincoces, Galo, & Santos, 2013). Statistical Analysis Data analysis is vital in the process of evaluating, illustrating, and applying statistical and logical practices to describe and summarize the gathered information in the research. Accuracy and appropriate analysis of research findings are an essential component of certifying data integrity. Incorrect statistical analyses misrepresent scientific findings that can leave a negative impact on the perception of the research by the public.
Furthermore, integrity concerns must be well maintained as it is equally important to the analysis of non-statistical. Patterns of observations are analyzed by the researchers through the data collection phase. In this particular study, the research category that was used on the causes of death among asthma and COPD patients were mainly observational, retroactive, cross-sectional, and multi-centered. The study was performed on a diverse group of patients who expired during the course of their admission in the hospital.
According to the authors, data of hospital deaths while admitted were collected during the months of January, April, July, and October. “A descriptive analysis was carried out for all variables collected. Summary results were expressed as percentages, frequencies and number of observations for qualitative variables, and as means with standard deviation for quantitative variables” (Soto-Campos, Plaza, Soriano, Cabrera-Lopez, Sanchez, Oliva, Serrano, Quincoces, Galo, & Santos, 2013). The authors in this article examined the normality of the samples using the Kolmogorov Smirnov.
The quantitative approach was used for comparison of categorical variables between groups. According to the researchers of this study, a multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the possible independent association of a previous diagnosis of asthma with death due to cardiovascular disease. Furthermore, the dependent variable was death by cardiovascular diseases and the independent variables. These are previous diagnosis of asthma or COPD, age, sex, smoking, previous history of diabetes mellitus, obesity, hyperlipidaemia, and arterial hypertension.
Comparisons with these two values were found to be statistically significant (Soto-Campos, Plaza, Soriano, Cabrera-Lopez, Sanchez, Oliva, Serrano, Quincoces, Galo, & Santos, 2013). Lastly, the results of the study matched the conclusion based on the main finding that cardiovascular diseases are the most frequent cause of death in patients with asthma compared to COPD patients’ mortality rate due to exacerbations and malignancies were less frequent. The authors stayed firm on their findings given the limited information on the topic. Conclusion.
The research question asked in the study is to determine the causes of death in hospitalized asthmatic patients and compare them with COPD patients and non-respiratory patients, focusing on the association of cardiovascular disease. The authors found that causes of death in asthma patients are directly related to cardiovascular diseases. Likewise, causes of death in COPD patients are due to exacerbation and malignancies, but less frequent in asthma patients. In addition, the researchers found inclusions of deaths of COPD patients as a significant event after the study.
While cardiovascular diseases comprised the most frequent cause of asthma mortality at 29. 3%, malignancies were the most common source of COPD deaths at 26. 5%, wherein a higher tobacco exposure is associated. Correspondingly, asthma patients’ death is less frequent than COPD patients. COPD patients died more often due to respiratory failure, lung cancer, pneumonia, and exacerbation of their disease (Soto-Campos, Plaza, Soriano, Cabrera-Lopez, Sanchez, Oliva, Serrano, Quincoces, Galo, & Santos, 2013). The summary report in the study is well defined and precise.
The authors followed the proper standards of performing and writing a clinical research. In addition, this particular study differs from other studies previously performed because of the study design that was used. The study design included deaths of patients with asthma of any age of both genders that represented more on the total population of asthmatics than previous studies carried out in specific sub-groups. The authors in this particular study were organized in developing an answer to their argument.
The researchers utilized passed literatures and studies as a foundation and as a support for their new contribution and insight.
References Resnik, J. D. , Ph. D, D. (2011, May). What is ethics in Research & Why is it Important? Retrieved from http://www. niehs. nih. gov/research/resources/bioethics/whatis/ Smith, Phd, D. , Reaney, Msc, M. , & Speight, Msc, J. (2009, July). Conducting Literature Reviews to Support the Use of Patient-Reported Outcomes (PRO) Measures in Clinical Trials – The Benefits of a Systematic Search Strategy.
International Society of Phamacoeconomics and Outcomes Research. Retrieved from http://www. ispor. org/news/articles/july09/clr. asp Soto-Campos, J. , Plaza, V. , Soriano, J. , Cabrera-Lopez, C. , Sanchez, C. , Oliva, R. , Serrano, J. , Quincoces, A. , Galo, A. , & Santos, V. (2013). Causes of Death in Asthma, COPD and Non-respiratory Hospitalized Patients. Medscape, 13(73), 41-47. USC Libraries. (2014, February 27). The Literature Review. Retrieved from http://www. libguides. usc. edu/content. php? pid=83009&sid=615851.