HLSC122 Semester 1: Assessment 3 - Critical Appraisal Report

This report presents a critical appraisal of a research paper by Day et al. (2018) focusing on illicit drug use, knowledge, and practices among music festival attendees. The report meticulously examines the paper's authorship, research questions, design, methods, and limitations, supported by relevant academic sources. The study investigated attitudes towards drug checking services and their potential impact on drug use behavior. The author identifies strengths such as the study's relevance and the use of a survey, and limitations including potential biases and sampling issues. Furthermore, the report discusses the application of the research findings to a given health scenario concerning a mother's concerns about drug testing at music festivals. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of critical appraisal in healthcare practice and the need to use evidence-based interventions. The report also considers enablers and barriers to the uptake of the research findings in practice, ultimately aiming to inform future healthcare practices.

Running head: ASSESSMENT 3
Assessment 3
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Full Reference
Day, N., Criss, J., Griffiths, B., Gujral, S. K., John-Leader, F., Johnston, J., & Pit, S. (2018).
Music festival attendees’ illicit drug use, knowledge and practices regarding drug content
and purity: a cross-sectional survey. Harm reduction journal, 15(1), 1.
Introduction
In the following essay, the ability of carrying out reflection with respect to a health
scenario will be demonstrated. In addition to reflecting on the health scenario, critical appraisal
of evidence by virtue of a primary research paper will also be provided in relation to the given
health scenario. Primarily, both the strengths as well as limitations of the research paper will be
identified. However, ultimately discussion will be undertaken with respect to the factors that
influence the utilization of evidence in practice. Moreover, for the sake of supporting the critical
appraisal of evidence, valid and varied academic sources will be referred. Thus, based on
synthesis of evidence following critical appraisal, useful recommendations relevant for
enhancing practice may be made.
Part A - Critical appraisal
Authorship
The authors’ credentials and contributions to the research paper strengthen the credibility
of the findings. It has been mentioned that all the four authors are associated with various
institutions that are in line with the study objective carried out by Day et al., (2018). Their
institutional affiliations corroborate with the type of study that has been undertaken to fulfill the
potential objectives. Association with harm reduction and health promotion programs apart from
other units of medicine, public health and rural health are proof enough that they have the
desired qualifications, authority to perform the operations in course of their study (Ivaniš et al.,
2011).
No comment has been cited with respect to the conflicts of interest or possible grounds
for bias in the paper thus questioning the validity of its reported findings. However, pertinent

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research has shown that the authors of published manuscripts who furnish conflict of interest
data are more likely to report positive findings (Friedman & Richter, 2004).
Research questions
Day et al., (2018) in their study have attempted to address their research question
whereby they focused meticulously on increasing their understanding with respect to the
attitudes and behaviors towards drug checking services in case of the music festival patrons. In
favor of their work, the authors have put forward their justifications, stating that this study will
be of the very first of its kind to be based at a music festival for surveying attendees in relation to
the drug checking services in Australia. Moreover, the authors anticipated that the valuable
knowledge procured from the study findings would further contribute to the debate revolving
around the issue of drug testing. Thus, the authors have attended to the novelty of the research
undertaken and the projected benefits. There have been reports where it has been stated that it is
crucial to identify research gaps thereby facilitating the setting of research work in context, so
that workflow may be maintained (Hunt, 2005).
Research design
In order to address the research question, the authors resorted to undertaking a survey by
virtue of which the data collection was done. As far as the data collection is concerned, the
survey was carried out over a span of 2 days at a major Australian popular music festival within
a sexual health promotion stall. Research carried out previously apart from the members of the
research team having desirable qualifications and expertise in the domains of drug and alcohol,
health promotion, sexual health and public health guided the content and structure of the survey.
Appropriate study has brought to the forefront that it is important to design a research properly
so that optimal benefits may be obtained by following that format in course of the study
undertaken. The research questions may be attended to adequately by following a good and
methodical research design. Faulty design of the research may lead to jeopardize of the research
objectives (Creswell & Creswell, 2017).
Research methods
Researchers adopted a paper-based survey to address the research questions in a befitting
manner. Data collected in course of the survey was majorly quantitative ones, excepting one
where an open-ended question was asked to the respondent. Participants for the study was

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recruited based on their estimated age range between 18-30 years who are considered as young
adults and were approached only in daytime to minimize the chances of them being intoxicated.
Participants were informed about the purpose of study and for maintaining their confidentiality,
anonymity in responses was ensured. Two waves of pilot testing in terms of the survey was
carried out with two groups of young adults making sure refinement of data collection tool
following each wave. Chi-square test and t-test statistical operations were used for data analysis
of the numeric data while thematic analysis was applied for the open-ended question.
The survey approach in research might pose as a limitation due to biased response where the
study objective gets defeated thus questioning the validity, although cost-effectiveness and
generalizability have been identified as major strengths in such research (Fielding & Schreier,
2001). In research methodology, selection of the most suitable methods is imperative to answer
research questions satisfactorily (Robson, 2011).
Results and limitations
The study findings depicted that majority of the music festival attendees aged 18-30 years
had a history of illicit drug use and they favored the provision of free drug checking at the
festivals. Further, a bulk of these respondents also confirmed that the results related to drug
checking would also affect their drug use behavior. Therefore, analyzing these results it may be
said that it successfully attended the research questions, thereby facilitating possibility of
applying these findings for future reference.
The study has been thwarted by certain intrinsic limitations hindering the applicability of
the research in real world. Presence of gender bias, self-report, convenience sampling and other
confounding factors such as missing data, sampling bias have been mentioned. Hence, presence
of these limitations despite best efforts to control confounding factors through application of
suitable methodologies act as an obstacle to applicability of research results to a target
population, sampling being a major concern in any research (Cooper et al., 2009).
Part B - Application of evidence to practice
In the given case scenario, the major concern lies with the perception of the mother of
Emily, who is reportedly apprehensive of her ward attending the music festival, as she believes
that drug testing in music festivals encourages the teenagers to use illicit drugs at music festivals.

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In the context of the present understanding, as a future healthcare professional I feel the necessity
of understanding the notion as to whether drug testing at music festivals promote the use of illicit
drugs among the teenagers. Stud by Day et al., (2018) highlighted that the drug checking
services at music festivals have the potential of reducing the harm and simultaneously promoting
health in case of the young people who attend the music festivals. This study findings will enable
to eliminate the negative connotations attached to drug testing in music festivals as perceived by
Emily’s mother. However, self-report as well as cross sectional modality of the research will
contribute towards questioning the credibility and validity of the findings.
Conclusion
Critical appraisal of a research paper is an important task that must be undertaken prior to
using any research-based evidence to clinical practice. Healthcare professionals must be aware of
the use of these research findings for implementing suitable interventions under specific
circumstances. Moreover, it is equally important to locate discipline specific literature for
undertaking the critical appraisal and hence applying the knowledge gained out of those papers
into actual practice. Sound appraisal of suitable research paper leads to synthesis of findings that
in turn pave the way for making the best choices in terms of application of the results in actual
discourse. Procurement of evidence to suit the needs of the stakeholders is a vital contribution of
this critical appraisal.

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References
Cooper, H., Hedges, L. V., & Valentine, J. C. (Eds.). (2009). The handbook of research synthesis
and meta-analysis. Russell Sage Foundation.
Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2017). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed
methods approaches. Sage publications.
Day, N., Criss, J., Griffiths, B., Gujral, S. K., John-Leader, F., Johnston, J., & Pit, S. (2018).
Music festival attendees’ illicit drug use, knowledge and practices regarding drug content
and purity: a cross-sectional survey. Harm reduction journal, 15(1), 1.
Fielding, N., & Schreier, M. (2001). Introduction: On the compatibility between qualitative and
quantitative research methods. In Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative
Social Research (Vol. 2, No. 1).
Friedman, L. S., & Richter, E. D. (2004). Relationship between conflicts of interest and research
results. Journal of general internal medicine, 19(1), 51-56.
Hunt, A. (2005). Your research project: how to manage it. Routledge.
Ivaniš, A., Hren, D., Marušić, M., & Marušić, A. (2011). Less work, less respect: authors'
perceived importance of research contributions and their declared contributions to
research articles. PLoS One, 6(6), e20206.
Robson, C. (2011). Real world research (Vol. 3). Chichester: Wiley.