Asthma Education in Adolescents, Coursework Example

The study initiated by Shah and his comrades intended to determine whether peer led education groups could increase the quality of life for asthma patients. A major strength of this research is that the authors utilized a large sample size of participants to conduct this analysis and there was only a small loss to follow-up (Shah et al., 2001, participants and methods). The methodology utilized ensured that students were randomly selected from six high schools, which allowed the sample to be representative of the whole student population. A video questionnaire was provided to selected students to determine their baseline quality of life related to asthma symptoms. The peer-led workshops were implemented in several stages. In the first step, several students were trained to serve as peer leaders (Shah et al., 2001, intervention and community support). In the second step, small groups were formed and the training sessions were initiated. In the third step, the younger students who were originally participants in the workshops became the leaders and ran the workshops for a new group. Analysis was conducted using t-tests or χ2 tests to compare the baseline quality of life values with the new values after the intervention had been applied (Shah et al., 2001, analysis).

Generally, the recommended paper organization guidelines were followed. The authors provided specific subsections under each major heading to ensure that each sub point was highlighted. This allowed the paper to be effective because it allows the reader to search for specific sections as needed for reference. This is beneficial to the authors because it will allow the research article to be more easily cited in additional research projects as a primary source. Following this organizational structure is therefore beneficial to the research process because it is more likely to facilitate the use of previous research in the development and implementation of new project ideas. This will help us build our scientific understanding of a field as whole, allowing us to constantly solve problems and ask new questions.

References

Shah, S., Peat, J., Mazurski, E., Wang, H., Sindhusake, D., Bruce, C., Henry, R. & Gibson, P..  (2001). Effect of peer led programme for asthma education in adolescents: Cluster randomised controlled trial. British Medical Journal, 322, 583-588. Retrieved from http://www.bmj.com/content/322/7286/583