The Critical Appraisal of Articles

Running head: Critical Appraisal of Articles
Critical Appraisal of Articles
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Critical Appraisal of Articles
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Introduction
The quality of life of the patients suffering from the problem of dementia is one of the
greatest challenges for the health care providers and also for society. In this regard, it can be
stated that the cases of dementia are very common among the older age people around the
different countries of the world. In this regard, it can be stated that this issue of poor quality
of life among dementia patients is mainly associated with the altered activities of daily livings
(Kamimura et al., 2014). According to the study of Giebel et al. (2014), it is stated that
among the older adults suffering from the problem of dementia is very common and as a
result, they become dependent on the other people of their family and friends (Spindel et al.,
2015). Hence, it is very important to improve the quality of life of those patients suffering
from the problem of dementia in their life (Al Hayek et al., 2014).
In this essay, three articles based on the problem of quality of life of dementia patients
are discussed. Along with this, the search strategy used to find the articles for the critical
appraisal is also mentioned in a brief manner.
Search Strategy
For searching the proper literature for the analysis of the selected topic, the
researchers carried out a search process in the online databases of the literature. The literature
searching process was carried out in between the month of January 2020. While searching the
literature in the online databases the researchers used the most appropriate keywords related
to the identified topic. For searching the appropriate literature for this present study, the
online databases like CINAHL, Pub Med, and Medline were used. Therefore, the primary
keywords that were used by the researchers were mainly “dementia”, “quality of life”,
“lifecare”, “depression”, “depression and dementia”, “association of depression and
dementia”, “older adults”, “older adults with problems of dementia”. Research articles

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without the above-mentioned words were excluded from the final analysis of the study.
Therefore, it can be stated that only 3 articles were chosen by the authors for the final critical
appraisal process.
Research Question
Can assistance to the dementia patients improve the condition of the dementia?
Critical Appraisal of the Articles
Critical Appraisal of Quantitative Study
The study of Giebel, Sutcliffe and Challis examined the quality of life and activities
of daily life across different stages of life while suffering from the problems of dementia. In
this regard, the authors have identified that people with dementia generally require a higher
level of assistance during their entire life.
From this study, it was reported that the researchers had set the research scene in a
proper manner. In this study, almost 122 patients suffering from the problem of dementia and
their caregivers were included. All of the patients lived in their own house and a few
participants were recently shifted to the long term care. However, a group of patients was
created by the authors and all the data were collected in North West England. In one of the
groups, patients with dementia under the age group of 65 years or more were recruited. In the
first group, the patients had the risk of admission in the care home and on another hand, in
another group; the patients were already admitted to the care home on a permanent basis in
the last three months (Giebel, Sutcliffe & Challis, 2015). As a part of the inclusion criteria of
the study participants of the study, it can be stated that in order to be included into the final
study analysis, the participants must have the problem of dementia, a score of 24 or less in

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the Mini-Mental State Examination (S-MMSE) and presence of informal carer living with the
patients with dementia (Oyebode et al., 2019).
For collecting the data the researchers mainly used face to face structured interview in
the house of the patients suffering from dementia and along with this, the interview was also
conducted among the caregivers of the patients. As a part of the data collection, the MSME
tool was used by the researchers. In this present study, a score of 20 to 24 out of 30 was used
to determine the level of dementia among the patients (mild dementia). Patients with
moderate dementia had a score of 10 to 19. In the case of the high level of dementia, the
patients had a score of 0 to 9 (Giebel, Sutcliffe & Challis, 2015). In the case of measuring the
activities of daily livings, the authors used the Katz Index of Independence as it measures the
six activities of the daily life of the patients. This tool is used to measure toileting, bathing,
continence, dressing, transfer and feeding activities of the patients. The quality of life or QoL
was measured by using the Quality of Life in Alzheimer’s disease (QoL-AD) rating scale that
has a very good level of psychometric properties that is this tool is validated and proven to
be reliable in various other studies (Nguyen et al., 2019).
While discussing the method of statistical tests, it can be stated that the authors used
the proper measure for this study. In this study the authors used ANOVA and as per the study
of Curtis, Comiskey and Dempsey (2016), the use of ANOVA is appropriate for quantitative
study analysis.
Yes, the data were analysed by using the original study protocol. As per the protocol
of the quantitative study, the data and the result should be presented in a tabular format. In
this study, the authors presented the data and the result in a tabular manner. Not only was
this, but the graphical representation of the data also present in the study according to the
original protocol of a quantitative study (Clemence, Doise, & Lorenzi-Cioldi, 2014).