Critique of Cardiovascular Risk Study in Elderly Women

Introduction and Title Appraisal

The title "Elderly Women Diagnosed with Nonspecific Chest Pain May Be at Increased Cardiovascular Risk" is succinct, yet it conveys the scope of the research in very few words. It identifies the three main variables around which the article is based.

The abstract contains all of the major sections of the paper and leads the audience properly into the study. Each section receives approximately a two-sentence treatment that explains the intent of the article, its methods, and its findings.

Research Question, Literature Review, and Conceptual Framework

Essentially, the article establishes that because women are more prone to nonspecific chest pain, research is needed to investigate whether women — who are also at greater risk of heart disease — are more susceptible to cardiovascular problems when they experience this type of chest pain. The problem carries significance for nursing because nurses are often the first to hear about this type of complaint. With the knowledge this research provides, nurses are better informed about the associated risks. The study is appropriate for a quantitative design, and the research question appears to match the method and research design.

Research Question: The research question is presented in the introduction of the article and is easily recognizable. It clearly identifies the variables around which the study is based.

Literature Review: The literature used for the study is sufficiently current — all within fifteen years — making it appropriate for the present study. The review is organized so that it presents prior research addressing the specific components of the study while also demonstrating that the current research represents a new direction that warrants investigation.

Methodology: Design, Population, and Sample

Conceptual Framework: The variables for the study are easily recognizable and well-defined. A formal framework is not explicitly stated, and there does not appear to be a clear reason for this omission. Nevertheless, the absence of an explicit framework does not substantially weaken the study's design given its straightforward quantitative approach.

Research Design: Most studies are required to go through an ethics and review board. Although it is not specifically stated that this study did so, it can reasonably be assumed. The study was conducted by members of the epidemiology department at a university hospital, and research involving human subjects data at such an institution would require IRB approval. The authors specifically discuss the minimization of risks among the original participants. Because this study is based on database research rather than direct interaction with participants, there was no additional danger to participants from the research itself.

The study used such a broad population base that the findings are easily extrapolated to the general population. Issues of validity were addressed through the relative simplicity of the design and the minimization of confounding variables. During the literature review, the authors examined each variable and the relevant prior work, suggesting that every effort was made to account for possible confounders.

Population and Sample: The research sample was drawn from a database of patients enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study. The women were postmenopausal, and those selected for the present study had no prior complaints of heart disease. Participants ranged in age from 50 to 79 years. The researchers used records from 83,622 women who met the study criteria. This extremely large sample size largely eliminates the biases that might occur with smaller samples, and it allows findings to be extrapolated across cultural groups with reasonable confidence.