Increasing Older Adults’ Confidence in Obtaining Online Health Information, Article Critique Example

The problem of this study is stated as, “To promote older adults’ confidence in disease management, encouraging individual pursuit of health management is important.” This is almost stated in thesis format and one would expect the study to prove or disprove this statement. However, the study did not go in that direction. Instead it was assumed to be the absolute truth, albeit with no sources to support it. The stated purpose of this study, which came after a couple of lines did not address encouraging individuals to pursue health management, which can be done in various ways. Instead of looking at ways of encouraging individual pursuit of health management, the stated purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a five week computer course at increasing older adults’ confidence in obtaining online health information. If the individual pursuit of health management is considered important, then various options of so doing should be explored. That was not the case. Quite a few people do not own computers.

Self reporting, which occurred with the “students.” is subjective and, consequently, does not lend itself readily to tests that yield a probability result and a significance. Furthermore, this study does not indicate what statistical analysis was used to analyze the data. Was it an SPSS? A t-test? The sample was also too small. This article qualifies as just that, not as a study.