This week you were exposed to different types of hazards in the workplace. One p

Question

This week you were exposed to different types of hazards in the workplace. One particular hazard mentioned was pesticides.

Choose one of the articles below and complete an article critique. Articles:

1.Engel L, Checkoway H, Keifer M, et al. Parkinsonism and occupational exposure to pesticides. Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 2001;58(9):582-589. doi:10.1136/oem.58.9.582.

2.Calvert, Geoffrey M, Jennifer Karnik, et al. Acute pesticide poisoning among agricultural workers in the United States. American Journal of Industrial Medicine. 2008; 51:883-898.

Your critique should include the following elements:

Introduction: Include the title and author of the article, statement of the problem discussed, purpose, and hypothesis.

Research Methods: What approach or methods were used in this study? Are they appropriate for the purposes of the study?

Key results: Clearly and succinctly summarize the key results of the study.

Statistical Significance: What is the statistical significance of this study? Are the statistical methods appropriate?

For more information on statistical significance please review these resources:

i)Statistical Significance: Definition, Levels & Critical Regions - http://study.com/academy/lesson/statistical-significance-definition-levels-critical-regions.html

ii)Tests of Significance - https://www.learner.org/courses/againstallodds/unitpages/unit25.html

Sources of bias: Was the author objective in the discussion of the topic? Identify and discuss any sources of bias in the study.

Explanation / Answer

Introduction: In this study we examine the risk of Parkinson in farmers in Washington especially orchardists that could be due to their life time exposure to pesticides

Research methods: We examine a total of 310 farmers that can be exposed to pesticides due to their occupation. Neurological examination was conducted for these farmers and they were given a detailed questionnaire to fill up. This includes the detailed information about the use of pesticides in their lifetime. Demographic information was also asked. The mean age of the participants was 69.6 years. There were about 238 farmers who are reported to exposed to pesticides while 72 others farmers reported none.

Parkinson disease were defined by two or more symptoms like tremor, impairment of reflexes related to posture, rigidity, bradykinesia etc. While those who were on antiparikinsonian medication, there should be at least one sign present.

A generalised linear model was prepared for estimating prevalance ratio of Parkinson disease. This model was prepared on the basis of the history of farmers, consumption of well water, use of pesticides.

Statistical significance: A Prevalence ratio of 2 i.e with 95% confidence interval was found for the farmers having highest tertile of years of their exposure to pesticides. Similarly also non significant prevalence ratio was found for the middle tertile of years which is 1.9 with 95% confidence interval. This trend does not show any significant relationship of exposure to response. These statistics methods are appropriate since the findings are consistent with the most of the studies on this topic

Key results: The disease Parkinson can be related to long term occupational exposure of pesticides to farmers.But this study does not find any increased risk of this disease with use of specific pesticides or well water or from the farming history.

Source of bias: Since the Parkinson disease cannot be studied in detail because it was difficult to distinguish it from other Parkinsonian syndrome which could be source of error or bias in the study

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