Control Trial Coursework (Coursework Sample)

Critical Review of Randomized Control Trial 2
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Abstract
A lot of research has been made in the past in order to control the spread of diseases which could harm infants and newly born babies. New born babies can be at great risk by being exposed to the foods which the mother is eating. A baby can be predicted his or her future by how much oxygen, water, and food that the mother is eating before giving birth.
When a baby is born, it is also very important that the mother eats healthy so that her body is not composed of body fluids which are harmful to the new born when breast feeding (Assendelft et al., 1998). A newly born child can contract a dangerous disease for example HIV/AIDs by breast feeding. In such a case the mother is usually advised by the doctors so that she may know; which type of milk that she will give the baby and also how she will be cautious when cleaning the child, and also know that she cannot mix her combs and anything sharp with the baby.
In the first six months lies the foundation of the health of a baby. In this stage, a mother is expected to breast-feed the baby and keep the baby as clean as possible. When the baby is breastfed frequently, the risk of reducing allergies, weak-bones, blindness, and heart diseases in the future is very low. The reason why mothers are usually advised to breastfeed is because milk from the mother has amino acid which protects the baby even against infections.
Scientist who did research have shown that a baby who is breast fed by the mother and another by cow milk, discovered that there is a difference between the two when they grew up. The baby who was breast fed was normal and had no difficulty while growing up. On the other child who had been fed with the cow milk since birth, was not doing well. The child had developed epidermal symptoms; the baby which was breastfed had no difficulty digesting food when breastfeeding period was over.
The baby could easily digest food and breakdown the proteins, fats and nutrients. This was because the body of the baby had quickly adapted to the nutrients, proteins and fats that was being delivered by the mother through breast feeding. The baby who was given the cow milk, had adapted different genetic proteins, fats and nutrients (Assendelft et al., 1998). This led to the baby having different disorders which did affect the body and caused health complications but this is usually in rare cases.
The use of casein hydrolysate is being used for infantile colic disorders in the children who are fed milk from the cow so that they may be prevented from the diseases and their immunity is usually boosted up. Although there are some parents who are using this method as drugs in order to stop the child from crying at night. When this method is abused especially to the breastfed child, it can easily overpower the child since there will be excess proteins and other materials which may cause fatal illness.
What question (PICO) did the RCT address?
The PICO was to compare between babies who breastfeed and those who are fed on formula, who gets more colic. The article mainly focuses on the treatment for colic babies. When looking for an article to answer your PICO, get one that clearly tackles the issue at hand. According to the article, one of the causes of infantile colicky is when the baby is allergic to cow milk. Therefore the article does answer the question; breastfed babies have a low risk of being colic if their diet is completely free of cow milk. Infantile colic is a disease that is diagnosed when the baby cries too much (Assendelft et al., 1998). It may have underlying causes such as stomach upsets, lack of sleep, and irritability among others. The article also focuses on the treatment of colicky babies. The best treatment was found to be substituting cow milk with hypoallergenic milk formulas. This information is found in the abstract of the article and also proofreading through the article.
A good article should be able to address the question at hand in the title, the abstract or the last paragraph. In this article, the abstract clearly states that the aim of the research was to find out the best treatment for infantile colic. This the best way of introducing a research paper as the reader gets a comprehensive idea of what the paper is talking about. The abstract also gives the results of the research but briefly. In this case, this is a good abstract. The question at hand as derived for the abstract is; which is the most effective treatment for colicky babies. The abstract gives the options that are addressed. These are; diets, medication and behavioral interventions.
a. Was the assignment of patients to treatments randomized?
After a forty year research on infantile colic; search in Medline (1966-96), there was then a search in Embase (1986-95) and finally a search in the register of Controlled Cochrane Trials. Results found that the infantile colic could be generalized to children below the ages of 2 years (Assendelft et al., 1998). The selected publications searched for the treatment of reducing colic in infants. In order for the success of reduction of colic, use of trial registers that did not have a time criteria was necessary. Each case study was given a score on its ability to be randomized, follow up and double blinding. Scores were between 0 to 5; 0 or 1 being of low quality.
b. Were the groups similar at the start of the trial?
During the scoring of the trial cases, the WG and PL scored them independently. Despite both being independently reviewed, the scores were somewhat the same. These results show the similarity in the cases scored (Assendelft et al., 1998). The...