Reflection Paper
What is the research problem?
The research seeks to study the influence of obesity, alcohol, and smoking in relation to effective utilization of healthcare services (Klea et al, 2006). This relates to the increase in the levels of obesity, alcohol abuse, and smoking activities in the modern society. The researcher needs to determine the role of the three factors in the healthcare application and relevant charges.
What assumptions did the researchers make?
The researcher held other contributing factors constant thus the ability to focus on smoking, obesity, and alcohol abuse in the execution of the research.
What is the population?
The population of the study reflects on the new patients within the context of the medical center.
How large is the sample? How was the sample selected?
The sample consisted of 509 new patients selected randomly for the execution and implementation of the research practice. The aim was to minimize essence of biasness in relation to generalizing on the findings of the project. The selection and assigning of the sample to the primary care physician was random sampling (Klea et al, 2006).
Do you see potential sources of statistical bias in the sampling procedure?
There are elements of statistical biasness towards the execution of research in that other factors apart from the three also play a critical role in the cost of medical services. The researcher adjusts the health status statistically with the aim of minimizing biasness of the experiment.
If this was an experiment, how were subjects allocated to treatment groups?
The allocation of the treatment groups was random with reference to the sample population of 509 new patients.
What data was collected? What statistical tools were used to analyze the data?
Collection of data during this practice focused on the socio-demographic information, examination of depression, history of tobacco use, alcoholism screening, and health status with reference to self-report. The research exercise also collected information on the height and weight of the population sample with the aim of generating body mass index. The research used regression to analyze data collected during the exercise. the data was also transformed through logarithm approaches with the aim of elaborating on the number of visits and medical charges (Klea et al, 2006).
What were the findings?
The research found that the mean number of primary care visits, primary care, and clinical charges were the main influences of control in relation to health status, obesity, age, education, and depression. Smoking was crucial to the determination or prediction in the number of emergency visits. Alcohol abuse was the influence in relation to the emergency visits and diagnostic services( Klea et al, 2006).
What were the conclusions?
The research practice concluded that there is the significance in the economic burden of smoking over a short duration. Healthcare programs should turn their attention towards the prevention of smoking thus, an opportunity towards minimization of the health or medical costs (Klea et al, 2006).
Do the authors discuss limitations, ethical issues, or sources of bias in their research? Do they discuss directions for future research?
The author discusses the limitations, ethical issues, elements of biasness, and essence of future research in the development and execution of future research practices. This qualifies the research as valid and reliable to facilitate the generalization process.
Response
The information in the research article is reliable in that it is developed from evidence and effective application of research methodology (Walker, 2011). The researcher adopts the use of ethical practices and instruments to develop the findings and conclusion of the study. The author also bases his arguments on the evidence from other sources thus offering quality to the study. The conclusion is justified because of the critical analysis of the data collected and the size of the population sample. I detect a point of view in the development of the conclusion as the author decides on the most applicable approach towards the minimization of medical costs.
References
Klea D. Bertakis & Rahman Azari. (2006). The Influence of Obesity, Alcohol Abuse, and Smoking on Utilization of Health Care Services. (Fam Med 2006; 38(6):427-434.). Health Services Research
Walker, I. R. (2011). Reliability in scientific research: Improving the dependability of measurements, calculations, equipment, and software. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lapan, S. D., Quartaroli, M. T., & Riemer, F. J. (2012). Qualitative research: An introduction to methods and designs. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
