Critical Appraisal of Qualitative and Quantitative Papers

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Assessment task 1
Critical appraisal of qualitative and
quantitaive papers
HSH7xx: Unit name
Unit chair: Name of unit chair
Author: Your name and ID
Date submitted: dd/mm/yy
Word count: xxx words

Your ID: Your name
Table of contents
Introduction.............................................1
Tool selection...........................................1
Appraisal of the qualitative article:............2
Appraisal of quantitative article:................4
Ethical issues:..........................................6
Summary.................................................8
References.............................................10
Appendix / Appendices............................12
Appendix A: CASP tool for qualitative studies................12
Appendix B: CASP tool for Cohort study.........................12
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Your ID: Your name
Introduction
To engage in evidence based practice, having the ability to
understand research papers and appraise the strength and
limitations of the papers in the context of relevant issue or
problem is important. Such skills can help to interpret the
critical value of the paper and understand the overall
implication of the paper for target field (LoBiondo-Wood
and Haber 2017). The main purpose of this report is to
conduct critical appraisal one qualitative and quantitative
research papers using a relevant critical appraisal too. The
strength and limitations of the papers and the main ethical
issues in relation to each paper will be discussed. The
report will give a short summary of the implications of each
finding for practice too.
Tool selection
As the main aim of the paper is to critically analyse the
research methodology of each paper and make judgment
regarding use of appropriate techniques specific to the
research, the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP)
tool will be used for the qualitative paper. CASP is a valid
tool that specifically has critical appraisal checklist for
qualitative studies. As Priest et al. (2017) used qualitative
research methodology, the use of CASP tool checklist for
qualitative study is most useful to critically analyse the
quality of the research paper. The key advantage of CASP
is that the framework provides the opportunity to
systematically assess trustworthiness, relevance and
results any published research papers (Critical Appraisal
Skills Programme 2019). In contrast for the quantitative
research paper by Liang, Howard and Wollersheim (2017),
NIH National Heart, Lung & Blood Institute tool for cross-
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Your ID: Your name
sectional studies has been used because the study was
done with a specific group of population at a specific point
of time. This tool can help to interpret whether appropriate
research method was used to recruit, collect data and
analyse study findings or not.
Appraisal of the qualitative article:
The study by Priest et al. (2017, p.1) used qualitative
approach to explore about the perspective of indigenous
children regarding maintaining health and well-being in an
urban setting of Australia. The research aim was clearly
stated and the significance of research on this topic was
clearly stated by the statement that voices young pre-
adolescent Australians regarding their health and well-
being has never been explored. Priest et al. (2017) defined
use of qualitative approach to fulfil the aim of research.
Use of qualitative research methodology is appropriate as
the research aimed to collect data related to opinion of
participants related to a health and wellbeing and
qualitative research design is used when the purpose is to
explore about opinion or perspective of a target population
group related to a phenomenon of interest (Silverman
2016). Hence, the phenomenon in the study was health
and well-being and the target population include
indigenous children. While reporting about the research
design, the author justified the reason for choosing the
research design too.
The recruitment of participants in the study was done by
the use of snowball sampling technique (Priest et al. 2017,
p. 4). It is a sampling technique where research
participants recruit other participants for the study (Etikan,
Alkassim and Abubakar 2016). This type of recruitment
technique was implemented in the study via community
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