Analysis of Study about Physical Training of Patients Suffering from Chronic Heart Failure by Klocek - Essay Example

The study on the “Effect of physical training on quality of life and oxygen consumption in patients with congestive heart failure” by Marek Klocek, Aleksandra Kubinyi, Bogumila Bacior, and Kalina Kawecka-Jaszcz (2005), aimed to concretely measure the effectiveness of physical training on patients suffering from chronic heart failure (CHF). The quality of life (QoL), or the patients’ capacity to enjoy regular life activities without physical, psychological or emotional hindrances, and the physical absorption of oxygen served as indicators to the researchers’ findings. Conclusions of this scientific report established that there was indeed a connection between physical activities and increases in both the QoL and oxygen uptake of CHF patients. Title and Abstract In the title and abstract, everything was already highlighted and students who intend to use it as a secondary source would already know the main point of the authors, which was to assess whether QoL and oxygen uptake among patients with CHF were in fact affected positively when they engaged in physical activities. The title was in itself the aim stipulated by the abstract, but it was not clear as to who the target audience of the authors were. So judging from the abstract alone and disregarding the nature of the journal wherein the article was published, it could have been addressed to the general public who might seek the research for their respective reasons. On one hand, audience groups with no medical or pharmacological know-how would have difficulty understanding the abstract. The title was also deceiving. Even if there was truth that the subjects were patients with CHF, the heading, as it was couched in general terms, gave the impression that “patients with chronic heart failure” included both male and female subjects. As it happened, the research focused only on 42 men with CHF New York Heart Association classification II and III. Given this fact, the authors could have stated honestly in the title that the research pertained to “male patients” with CHF. This is to avoid provoking rash presumptions. However, such consistency between title and abstract, despite the redundancy, showed the researchers’ conviction on the efficacy of their study (Klocek, et al., 2005, pp.323-324). Introduction In the introductory portion of the report, the authors worked on terms that appeared in both the title and the abstract and provided certain facts about them. There were brief explanations on CHF, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), oxygen uptake, and the individual roles they played in the randomized controlled trials and in later findings. Probably due to the loose structure of the introduction, there were often off-tangent discussions. Although it began with a short explanation what the CHF condition was and why it was the object of study in the research, the separate discussions on HRQoL and oxygen uptake made it difficult to piece that the authors were trying to make readers understand that these two were good indicators in proving the effectiveness of physical training. The paragraph explaining the benefits of physical training could have been adjusted to connect with the CHF discussion, instead of being inserted between HRQoL and oxygen consumption facts. The two indicators could have been discussed to justify the benefits of physical training in a succeeding paragraph. It was good, however, that the authors restated their main point or aim in conducting the study, which also served as the thesis statement (Klocek, et al., 2005, p.323). Methods Methodology appeared to be the most controversial area. The study design employed the randomized controlled trial method, which was the best way to secure compelling evidence that would support the researchers’ main point. Using a random sampling was of course a good move. Randomized studies are usually representative of and applicable to varied segments in a given population, have predictable errors, and can be used with different sampling techniques. Even so, selection bias is still possible; researchers might have chosen subjects based on factors other than their CHF conditions. Too much randomness could also get in the way of authoritative findings (Hunt & Tyrell, 2001). In the study, the researchers “consecutively recruited” patients from I Cardiac Department, Medical School of Jagiellonian University, but they failed to explain why the patients of this university were chosen when there are many hospitals in Krakow, Poland, the setting where the researchers conducted their study (Klocek, et al., 2005, p.324). This made the exclusive selection of the Medical School of Jagiellonian University quite biased, not to mention that it was not also clear who selected the patients – the researchers or a third party. Furthermore, the researchers were unable to establish the representativeness of the patients in the Cardiac Department of their Medical School, or whether they were more varied than the patients in public hospitals. If they chose their sample population based on convenience, since patients in one place would be easy to gather and they themselves need not have to travel far, then the accuracy of the study was already doubtful. It was also not clear why “stable chronic heart failure with left, ventricular ejection fraction below 40% at echocardiographic (ECG) examination performed no later than one month before inclusion, and age Read More