This is worth watching

The Kaiser Family Foundation presents a creative, simple interpretation of Health Reform in this Youtube video.  Hope you'll watch

http://healthreform.kff.org/The-Animation.aspx

The following is an interesting summary of a study done on errors in research design: Empirical Evidence of Prevalence of Methodological Problems in Published Reports of Randomized Trials (Altman, 2002).

Failing to specify eligibility criteria

                25% of 364 reports in surgery journals

Not reporting an adequate method for generating random numbers

                68% of 206 reports in OB/GYN journals; 52% of 80 reports in general medicine journals

Not reporting the mechanism used to allocate interventions

89% of 196 reports in rheumatoid arthritis journals, 48% of 206 reports in OB/GYN Journals;  44% of 80 reports in general medicine journals

Failing to state whether blinding was used

51% of 506 in cystic fibrosis journals, 33% of 196 reports in rheumatoid arthritis journals; 38% of 68 reports in dermatology journals

Incorrect analysis of multiple observations

                63% of 196 reports in rheumatoid arthritis journals

Inadequate information on harmful consequences of interventions

                61% of 192 reports in 7 medical areas

Incorrect method of comparison of subgroups

                58% of 50 reports in general journals

References:

Altman, G. (2002, June). Poor quality medical research.  JAMA. 287(21). 2765-2767

How old is too old?

I’ve been searching for info all week to address the topic of  “data lag” in terms of research, i.e., "How old is too old."  It seems that many nurse researchers subscribe to "greater than 5 years old -- don't use it." 


I consulted the Director of Research and Evidence Based Practice (Rebecca Tart, PhD) at my facility.  Based on the information she provided, I see that I’ve been searching for information to support my perspective that “lots of research that uses an economic analysis perspective is not all that valid today due to the time lag.” Dr. Tart helped expand my thinking on this topic. Her perspective is that “nursing is missing the boat in that much of what is being taught in academic programs is that if research is older than 5 years it shouldn’t be considered as all that useful.” That rang a bell. In some of our prior courses, I’ve lost some points on papers for using references that were greater than 5 years old. She went on to explain that “not everything is researched consistently….sometimes there are years of lag time between published studies on a particular topic.

Dr. Tart pointed me to several relevant articles. Balas’ (2001) states there is a 17-year lag time between research and practice changes. Dr. Tart also pointed out the value of considering the long history of research in a topic such as SIDS.  The SIDS article aptly describes with statistical support the gravity of the problem of researchers discounting "old" data. It also suggests that the US lagged even further behind Europe even when the evidence was substantial.


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