Critical Appraisal (Paraphrasing)

Running head: CRITICAL APPRAISAL
Critical Appraisal (Paraphrasing)
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1Critical Appraisal
Summary and Critical Appraisal of the Study
The primary focus of this paper is the determination of how diet plays a key role in
affecting the development of pancreatic cancer by the study (Jansen et al., 2014). The patients
in Mayo Clinic in United States of America have been undertaken for the case-control study.
The data for the study was collected for a period of five years from May of 2004 to December
of 2009 and were analysed to understand the relationship between diet of the participants and
pancreatic cancer. A critical appraisal for the study conducted by Jansen (2014) will be
presented in this paper which will help in determining the implications by providing a
summary of the study.
The study conducted by Jansen et al., (2014) examined the relationship between the
pancreatic cancer and the inclusion of specific fats in the diet. It was published in the year
2014 and titled, “Fatty acids found in dairy, protein and unsaturated fatty acids are associated
with risk of pancreatic cancer in a case-control study”. The focus of the study was the effect
of specific fatty acids rather than all fatty acids found in meat, fish and dairy products in the
development and risk of pancreatic cancer as researched by previous authors. In the study
conducted by the authors, it could be observed that individuals who had consumed a diet
higher in protein and unsaturated fatty acids, there was a decrease in the number of pancreatic
cancer cases. However, if an individual consumes fats which are prevalent in dairy, have
been observed to increase the risk of pancreatic cancer. The study had conducted the
methodology of case-control which was appropriate for this kind of study while also
addressing the research questions that were laid out in the study.
The participants of the study were selected on the basis of tem attending the Mayo
Clinic and were followed up for five years with no form of bias in their selection. Majority of
the cases that have been reported have been co-related with medical and pathology reports.

2Critical Appraisal
The controls have been selected on the basis of the patients who have received primary care
with high frequency match on the age of recruitment, sex, region of residence and race.
However, there was nothing special observed for the controls that have been selected
population-based. They were provided with a 144-item food frequency questionnaire which
helped the authors of the study to understand the diet of the participants (Jansen et al., 2014).
To help in the determination of Odd Ratios, statistical analysis and logic regression model at
confidence level of 95% were conducted on the data collected. The adjustment for the results
obtained contained additional parameters drug use, age, sex, savings of daily food and BMI
(Jansen et al., 2014). The variables that have been included have all been considered which
are associated with dietary intake and pancreatic cancer. However, only p-values lesser than
0.05 were given significance.
Appropriate software and important data have been used for the analysis of the study;
hence, the study could be stated believable and free from any form of bias. For the reduction
of bias, the exposure of the study was clearly defined and used objectives measurements in
the form of statistical software for the analysis of the data. In the study design, there was no
blinding observed for the participants that have undertaken the study. The confounding
variables that have been observed in the study to influence the results are the PUFA
groupings. The design of the study was well-structured; hence, making it more reliable. The
results presented by the authors in the study was well presented which made it easy for
understanding for the readers and identify the most significant values (Jansen et al., 2019).
Tables were constructed with labels of OR, Quintile values and the p-value for appropriate
presentation of the data.
One of the benefits of the study conducted is the implementation of measures for
decreasing the cases of pancreatic cancer as analysed by Norat, (2014). The first task is to
inform the medical community about the risk factors that can influence the development of