Assessment on Journal Article Evaluation Using a Critical Appraisal Tool

Running Head: Assessment 3: Journal Article Evaluation: Using A Critical Appraisal Tool
ASSESSMENT 3: JOURNAL ARTICLE EVALUATION:
USING A CRITICAL APPRAISAL TOOL

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Assessment 3: Journal Article Evaluation: Using A Critical Appraisal Tool
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Reviewing the effectiveness of Zingiberaceae extracts for pain...............................................3
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
Reference list..............................................................................................................................8
Appendix..................................................................................................................................11

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Assessment 3: Journal Article Evaluation: Using A Critical Appraisal Tool
Introduction
This study is evaluating a selected journal article that has conducted a systematic
review and meta-analysis. The following article has focused on the effectiveness of
Zingiberaceae extracts in reducing pain. This paper has been selected after reviewing search
techniques, selection techniques and references of this article. As authors have used
appropriate methodology, the outcome of this article has been found authentic and reliable.
Evidence of the data analysis has been included in this study that has made it more
acceptable. This journal has successfully answered the research question. PRISMA has been
considered an appropriate critical appraisal tool for this study.
The chosen article:
Lakhan, S. E., Ford, C. T., & Tepper, D. (2015). Zingiberaceae extracts for pain: a
systematic review and meta-analysis. Nutrition journal, 14(1), 50. Retrieved
from:https://nutritionj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12937-015-0038-8
Reviewing the effectiveness of Zingiberaceae extracts for pain
For evaluating the research, a PRISMA checklist has been used. Different sections of
study including abstract, title, method and discussion were evaluated through the help of this
critical appraisal tool.
Evaluating the article by using PRISMA tool
The title of the research article shows that it is based on systematic review and meta-
analysis. Moreover, in the abstract, there is a structured summary that includes the
background of the article, methods and results, and keywords. This study is based on the
members of the Zingiberaceae family and its main aim is to find whether extracts of this
group of traditional medicine can be considered as clinically effective analgesics agents.
Zingiberaceae family includes ginger, galangal and Javanese ginger that are considered as
traditional medicines. As opined by Hunter (2018), commonly prescribed drugs for pain relief

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Assessment 3: Journal Article Evaluation: Using A Critical Appraisal Tool
may have side effects that can impact the body. Systematic review was conducted by
searching for articles using keywords like Zingiberaceae, pain, and VAS for achieving this
aim of the article. It was found that a significant dose of this medicine reduces chronic pain,
which meta-analysis results found that inappropriate intake of these medicines can cause
internal bleeding and its unsafe for pregnant women or people suffering from chronic
diseases. The rationale of this study is also clearly described that states that members of
Zingiberaceae family are considered as traditional medicines, which have an analgesic
property and can be used as an intervention to cure chronic pain. As stated by Treede et al.
(2019), chronic pain is the main symptom of different long term conditions including
arthritis, neural injury and others. The main objective is to find the effectiveness of this
group of medicines.
This chosen article can be accessed by anyone through the DOI 10.1186/s12937-015-
0038-8. The method of this research has been described in detail by the authors under
subheadings. In 2015, this study was published and it was done under the attribution license.
This journal can be obtained from Biomed Central. Patients who were suffering from pain for
at least 24 hours and more have been mentioned as diagnostic criteria. As mentioned by
Munn et al. (2018), appropriate databases need to be chosen in case of conducting a
systematic review of authentic papers. In the case of this study, top reliable databases
including database of Cochrane Library, PubMed and Science Direct have been considered
appropriate for selecting resources for screening. On the other hand, Rieh, Collins-
Thompson, Hansen, & Lee (2016) have mentioned that appropriate terms need to be used
while searching for authentic resources. Considering this fact, taxonomic and common names
of Zingiberaceae species and their effectiveness have been used as search terms. According
to Zorzela et al. (2016), if a paper is made by following the PRISMA guideline, it can be
assumed that there are no risks of biases. The authors of this article have manually checked