Assignment Instructions:
Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses and respond in one or more of the following ways:
Ask a probing question, substantiated with additional background information, evidence, or research.
Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings, synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives.
Offer and support an alternative perspective using readings from the classroom or from your own research in the Walden Library.
Validate an idea with your own experience and additional research.
Suggest an alternative perspective based on additional evidence drawn from readings or after synthesizing multiple postings.
Expand on your colleagues’ postings by providing additional insights or contrasting perspectives based on readings and evidence.
NOTE: PLEASE!!! use APA 7th edition for the references, each colleague needs 2 references each and please DO NOT combine the references. Each colleague’s reference needs to follow with the response. No references older than 5 years old. Thank you!
Colleague #1
Topic Description: Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is a severe and prevalent condition that significantly increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, and other health problems. Managing hypertension effectively often involves both pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions. This discussion focuses on the effectiveness of lifestyle interventions, such as diet and exercise, in controlling blood pressure among hypertensive patients.
Study Summary: The selected research article, “Effectiveness of Lifestyle Interventions on Blood Pressure Control in Hypertensive Patients: A Randomized Controlled Trial,” evaluates the impact of various lifestyle modifications on blood pressure management (Johnson & Lee, 2023). The study aims to determine which combination of interventions (diet modification, exercise, or both) yields the most significant improvements in blood pressure control.
Sample Studied: The study included 400 adult patients diagnosed with hypertension. These patients were randomly assigned to one of four groups: diet modification, exercise, combined diet and exercise, and a control group receiving standard care. Each group consisted of 100 participants (Johnson & Lee, 2023).
Data Sources: Data were collected from several sources, including baseline and follow-up blood pressure measurements, patient adherence logs, dietary intake records, physical activity logs, and patient-reported outcomes on quality of life (Johnson & Lee, 2023).
Inferential Statistics Used: The study employed Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to compare the mean changes in blood pressure across the four intervention groups over the study period. Additionally, post-hoc t-tests were used to compare the means between specific pairs of groups (Johnson & Lee, 2023).
Findings: The ANOVA results indicated significant differences in blood pressure reduction among the groups. The combined diet and exercise group showed the greatest reduction in blood pressure, followed by the exercise group, diet group, and control group. Post-hoc t-tests confirmed that the differences between the combined intervention group and the other groups were statistically significant (Johnson & Lee, 2023).
Purpose and Value of the Research Study: The primary purpose of this study was to identify the most effective lifestyle interventions for managing hypertension, thereby providing evidence to guide clinical practice. The study’s value lies in its potential to inform healthcare providers about the benefits of combining diet and exercise for hypertensive patients, offering a non-pharmacological approach to complement traditional treatments (Johnson & Lee, 2023).
Impact of Inferential Statistics on the Study’s Application to Evidence-Based Practice: Inferential statistics, particularly ANOVA, strengthened the study’s application to evidence-based practice. ANOVA allowed the researchers to compare multiple groups simultaneously, providing a clear understanding of which interventions were most effective. This statistical method enhanced the study’s credibility by ensuring that the observed differences in blood pressure reductions were not due to random variation but were statistically significant. The use of post-hoc t-tests further validated these findings by confirming specific group differences (Johnson & Lee, 2023).
Conclusion: In conclusion, the application of inferential statistics in this study provided robust evidence of the effectiveness of lifestyle interventions for managing hypertension. These findings support the references for incorporating combined diet and exercise programs into hypertension treatment protocols, offering a comprehensive approach to improving patient outcomes.
Colleague #2
Main post:
Inferential statistics refers to the use of a sample to estimate characteristics in a large population and to test a research hypothesis to draw conclusions about a given population. According to Trafimow and MacDonald (2016) some common inferential statistical tests include chi-square, correlation, and regression.
The topic I selected for this discussion: I decided to continue with my area of interest from last week: the effect of CHG bathing on reducing the risk of developing Hospital-acquired infection.
Chlorohexidine is a widely used and cost-effective cleaning agent. In the research of Lewis et al. (2019) the authors evaluate the effectiveness of bathing critically ill patients with chlorohexidine in preventing HAIs. More specifically in ICU settings where a majority of the patients have central lines and are prone to infections. Two of the authors work to remove any bias from the study group and ensure eligibility for fair and randomized participant selection. The Arthurs used randomized control trials (RCT) to collect data. A total of 1537 patients were randomly selected and then divided into two essential groups: one group of participants bathed with 2% chlorohexidine, and the other group bathed with soap and water. There are also four cluster-randomized cross‐over studies with a total of over 22,000 participants. The authors found that eight groups reported developing HAIs during the stay, and there were six studies in which the patient was deceased. Six studies showed a notice of length of stay in ICU, and seven studies showed skin irritations.
The studies were conducted within 5 years, which ensures that the findings are current and can still be applied to future practice. The authors did a great job of selecting the participants randomly. They eliminated bias and excluded groups that were not eligible to participate in the study, which helped to generate a more accurate and relevant conclusion. Using inferential statistics can strengthen the application of evidence-based practice if the sampling is done right. It can help the researchers draw conclusions from a sample of a population. However, Guetterman (2019) pointed out that if the sampling error is large, it might not represent the entire population, therefore leading to a misrepresentation of the population. This is the main limitation of using inferential statistics. For example, if I go to a nice neighborhood to sample how much their annual income is and try to apply it to the general population, it wouldn’t be accurate because the sampling method has a huge selection error; it’s not randomized.
