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RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIALS
Randomized Trials in Epidemiology
Wei et al. (2017) conducted a randomized controlled trial to measure the effectiveness of an antimicrobial stewardship program. The program, which targeted caregivers and providers in China, sought to reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescribing for respiratory tract infections in children. The study was informed by the high rate of inappropriate antibiotic prescribing among pediatric patients in China. The study population was primary care hospitals in rural China. The researchers selected all 25 hospitals within Liujiang and Rong Counties in Guangxi Province, and randomly allocated 13 to the control group and 12 to the intervention group over a six-month intervention period. Hospitals in the intervention group received caregiver education on antibiotics prescribing, monthly peer-review meetings for physicians, as well as clinician training and guidelines on appropriate antibiotics prescribing. Conversely, those in the control group offered usual care, where clinicians prescribe antibiotics at their discretion.
The study ran for six months. The outcome measure was the antibiotic prescription rate for pediatric outpatients aged between 2 and 14 receiving treatment for upper respiratory tract infections. The researchers collected baseline data on pediatric antibiotic prescription rates in all hospitals in the three months before the start of the study. To assess the effectiveness of the intervention, the researchers reviewed outpatient antibiotic prescription rates over the final three months of the six-month intervention period to determine the proportion of outpatient pediatric...…(Goldstein et al., 2018). This study, however, uses children, who may not be in a position to legally give their consent.
Despite these ethical issues, the adopted study design brings about crucial benefits that would not be realized using other research designs. The primary benefit is that the random assignment of items to either the control or intervention group helps to increase objectivity by minimizing researcher bias in selecting whom to place in what group (Goldstein et al., 2018). The high objectivity, in turn, enhances the generalizability of research findings (Goldstein et al., 2018). Generalizability means that the research findings generated from the sample can effectively be used to make inferences about the entire population. In this case, for instance,…
References
Curley, A. L. (Ed.). (2020). Population-Based Nursing: Concepts and Competencies for Advanced Practice (3rd ed.). Danvers, MA: Springer.
Goldstein, C. E., Weijer, C., Brehaut, J., Fergusson, D.A., Grimshaw, J., Horn, A. R., & Taljaard, M. (2018). Ethical Issues in Pragmatic Randomized Controlled Trials: A Review of the Recent Literature Identifies Gaps in Ethical Argumentation. BMC Medical Ethics, 14(1), org/10.1186/s12910-018-0253-x
Wei, X., Zhang, Z., Walley, J., Hicks, J., Zeng, J.,…& Lin, M. (2017). Effect of a Training and Educational Intervention for Physicians and Caregivers on Antibiotic Prescribing for Upper Respiratory Tract Infections in Children at Primary Care Facilities in Rural China: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial. The Lancet, 5(12), 1258-67.
Acute Upper Respiratory Infection URI is a prevalent acute illness in the general population and outpatient setting that results in missed school or work days. The incidence of URI has been increasing globally. The WHO Statistics indicate 650,000 deaths related to URI and 18.8 billion incidences of URI globally with an estimated cost exceeding $22billion annually in the United States. The WHO report indicates the prevalence of deaths related to URI
The worldwide outbreak of life threatening respiratory illness is called the severe acute respiratory syndrome. With the epicenters of the syndrome being Hong Kong and Guangdong province in China, the illness has spread to more than 25 countries. However, infants and young children are not a special risk group for the syndrome. The characteristics of this syndrome include an incubation time of up to 10 days, prodromal signs such as
Acute Upper Respiratory Infection Introduction An acute upper respiratory infection (URI) is also referred to as the common cold. It normally affects the nasal passages and throat. The upper respiratory tract consists of the nose, pharynx, throat, bronchi, and larynx. Treatment for acute URI is usually simple not unless one has a chronic respiratory condition like asthma. This is one of the most common illnesses that leads to more doctor visits and
Respiratory Infections Respiratory Conditions Respiratory tract infections are highly infectious diseases that involve the respiratory tract. They are divided into upper (URTI or URI) and lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI or LRI). LRIs include pneumonia, bronchitis and influenza, and they tend to affect patients more seriously that URIs which include the common cold, tonsillitis, sinusitis and laryngitis. This research dwells on four respiratory infections which are bronchitis, bronchial asthma, exercise-induced bronchospasm and
2008).. This points to the ethical responsibility of nurse educators -- it is not enough to treat the disease, bit one must treat the patient. Failure to provide the proper level of education to a patient is certainly one way to fail them both ethically and medically, bit the opposite can also be true. That is, it is possible to provide too much care -- what is deemed "medically futile
Methylxanthines Yet another type of medication used to improve respiratory function is Methylxanthines. Some examples of these include Theophylline. These types of agents work similarly to bronchodilators which open the airway passage, in part by relaxing the bronchial or smooth muscles in the air passage ways. They also help promote greater circulation and engage the central nervous system so it can more actively work to provide oxygen throughout the body. Because