Respiratory Rates for Children It is well known that high respiratory rate is a

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Respiratory Rates for Children

It is well known that high respiratory rate is a potential diagnostic indicator of respiratory infection in children. To adjudge a respiratory rate as been “high” a physician needs to know the distribution of normal respiratory rates. Italian researchers measured the respiratory rates of children between the ages of 15 days and 3 years. The children were seen by four investigators who assessed their respiratory rates with the use of a stethoscope. Each investigator assessed a minimum of 100 children. Of the 618 children assessed, 309 were in good health and were seen in day care centers and 309 were seen in hospital as inpatients or outpatients. The main diagnoses for these patients were gastrointestinal and urologic disorders, skin diseases, and orthopedic problems. Children with any chronic or severe illness, dehydration, or a history of fever or respiratory findings suggesting a respiratory infection in the previous 2 weeks were excluded from the study. The original study is discussed in Rusconi et al. (1994), “Reference values for respiratory rate in the first 3 years of life,” Pediatrics, 94, 350-55.

Answer the following questions:

1. Use the information provided in the introduction to answer the following questions on the study design:

(a) Briefly describe the study design. Is this an observational study or an experimental study? Explain briefly.

(b) Why were children with chronic or severe illness, dehydration, or a history of fever or respiratory findings suggesting a respiratory infection in the previous 2 weeks excluded from the study?

(c) If the investigators were interested in describing normal respiratory rates in children from age 0 to 3 years, why did they include children with gastrointestinal and urologic disorders, skin diseases, and orthopedic problems in the sample and not just healthy children? 1

(d) Given that measurements were taken by four different people, how might this affect the result of the study?

Explanation / Answer

Question1:

(a) Its an observational study because we are just observing the respiratory rate in children without giving any additional treatments. so it is not a experimental study but it is an observational study

(b) Because, including them can cause biasness to our study and hence they are excluded from our observational study

(c)They had to include children with gastrointestinal and urologic disorders, skin diseases, and orthopedic problems in the sample in order to cover all the variances in respiratory rates among children even they are unhealthy

(d) As the sample size is 100, it should not be varying much. If the sample size increases for every investigaor then the result o the study for different people remain almost same

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