Structured Critical Appraisal & Evidence Synthesis

WSU Structured Critical Appraisal & Evidence Synthesis Breast Cancer Essay

Population Health Assignment 2 – Structured Critical Appraisal and Evidence Synthesis

Aim: The aim of this assignment is to conduct a critical appraisal of the three articlesthat you located in Assignment 1. Assignment 2 will involve applying concepts from Topics 4-10 in assessing the quality of the selected articles and synthesising the evidence.

Length: Up to 1800 words (+/-10%), including tables but not reference list. Penalties will apply over 1880 words. Note:  Every 50 words over the word limit will incur a 0.5 mark penalty

Weighting: 60% (individual assignment).

Due date: Midnight Friday 4 September. Assignments should be submitted through the Turnitin portal in vUWS under the 2h >Population Health 1 folder. Please remember to include your name and student ID in the header or footer of the document. Late submissions will have 10% marks deducted for every day late, unless prior arrangements have been made with the convenor. Please use Vancouver referencing style and ensure your assignment is double spaced, 12 point, Times New Roman or Arial or Calibri font. 

Task:Reflect upon the content of the Population Health topics we have covered in this course, and critically appraise the articles you selected in Assignment one by answering the following questions:

Required Structure:

Question 1:  Describe the characteristicsof the three papers you selected. Specifically address the following questions:

-What was the exposure or intervention (this should be the same in all three studies)?

-What was the outcome (this should be the same in all three studies)?

-What were the study designs?

-Who were the study population?

(Length: ~300 words)

Question 2: To what extent can the observed association between the exposure and outcome be attributed to bias and confounding? Consider the following questions in your critique of your three selected studies:

-Are the results likely to be affected by selection and/or measurement bias?

-Are the results likely to be affected by confounding?

-Are the results likely to be affected by chance variation?

(Length: ~500 words)

Question 3: Do the findings of the three articles accord with each other? Specifically:

-Are the findings of your three selected studies consistent with each other? Pay particular attention to the study designs and how they may contribute to your overall synthesis of this evidence.

(Length: ~300 words)

Question 4: What is the summary of the evidence?

 

– Synthesise the results of the three studies together.

 

– Provide a brief summary of the overall results of these studies, ensuring you discuss the results in the context of the strength of the evidence.

(Length: ~500 words)

Question 5:  Are the findings externally valid, that is generalisable? Specifically:

-Can the findings of your three papers be applied to the source populations from which the study populations were derived?

– Using your synthesis of results from Question 3, can the results be applied to the Greater Western Sydney population?

(Length: ~200 words)

A note on referencing

Consistently apply a recognised academic referencing system, such as Vancouver. Make sure you cite everything that is not your own idea, and list all sources in full at the end. Check the Library website for guides and library staff can help you if you are unsure. You can also use bibliographic software such as EndNote or Mendeley for storing references in a database and applying style templates to Word documents. Your reference list is NOT part of the assignment word count.