Application of epidemiology in community health nursing Athabasca University NURS 434

 Introduction
The aim of this assignment is to analyze and review the selected article in terms of
strengths and limitation to show an understanding of the research process. A critique is a
systematic evaluation of a research strength and limitations (Polit & Beck, 2014). This paper is a
critique of an article “Third-world realities in a first-world setting: A study of the HIV/AIDSrelated conditions and risk behaviors of sex trade workers in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada”
published SAHARA-J: Journal of Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS in 2016 by Bird, Lemstra,
Rogers, and Moraros.
Title & Author: The researcher’s credentials are provided, and all of which have
postgraduate degrees and three of which have doctorates. They all work as a professor in the
school of public health at the University of Saskatchewan. This means that they have the
research capabilities and know-how to undertake such study. The title should be 10 to 15 words
long and should clearly describe the reader’s intent for the review (Coughlan et al., 2007).
However, the title of the article is significantly longer than what is suggested.
Literature Review: Literature review should help to identify any gaps in the literature
relating to the problem and to suggest how those gaps might be filled (Coughlan et al., 2007).In
this article, the authors did not mention the knowledge gaps i.e. the connection between problem
and the previous studies is not clearly stated. The article was published in 2016, but the studies
used in are from 1992-2016, preferably it should be within five years of research study
(Coughlan et al., 2007). The sources used in the articles are clearly and completely cited by the
authors in references section in alphabetical order.

Sample and Sample Size: Best possible sampling design should be used to enhance the
sample’s representativeness and reduce sample biasness, adequate and a power analysis should
be used to estimate sample size needs (Polit and Beck, 2014). The researchers Bird, Lemstra,
Rogers, & Moraros, (2016) clearly define the target group and the parameters have been used to
include when choosing the sample (Coughlan, et al., 2007). Throughout this study, 340 STWs at
risk for contracting HIV were recruited in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to participate via selective
sampling (Bird et al., 2016, p.154). Just adults 18 years of age and over who gave written and
informed consent were permitted to participate in this study (Bird et al., 2016, p.154)
Ethical Consideration: Approval must be issued by ethical committees or institutional
review boards before research can be carried out (Coughlan, et al., 2007). In the method section
under the subheading “study design & participants”, it says that ethics approval from the
University of Saskatchewan Behavioral Research Ethics was obtained and both written and
informed consent was obtained from the participants, both of which reflect strong ethical
consideration. However, the privacy and confidentiality concerns are not explicitly stated in the
article.
Study Design: Polit & Beck (2014) recommends that the method clearly shows the
research methodology to be used and asks whether the method is suitable to the research
question and if the strength and weakness of the methodology are mentioned. In reviewing the
methodology section under the subheading “the study design & participants” in first line, the text
clearly pointed out that the article is of quantitative cross-sectional descriptive approach using
targeted sampling method. The researchers define the respondent characteristics using the closeended questions and they used the statistical approach for data analysis. Both demographic and
socioeconomic questions were asked to the participants (Bhat, 2018). All these features indicate that the design used in the article is descriptive in nature. Throughout the study, researchers
specifically identified the target population who were “sex trade workers”. 340 STW who are at
risk for contracting HIV were recruited with an inclusion criteria of adult 18 years of age or over
and the method used was convenience sampling (Bird et al., 2016, p.154). Thus, the sample size
and sampling method is clearly stated in the article by researchers. However, the sample process
is not described in much detail and doesn’t give the reader any idea of how the data was
collected, who was recording it and analyzing it. Another limitation of this study is that the
sample size is relatively low for population in Saskatoon.
Data Collection: Questionnaires are the most widely used instruments for collecting data
and consist primarily of closed questions with a choice of fixed answers (Polit & Beck, 2014).
The authors asked , two close ended questions to define and identify current STW and 28
questions from the Health and Relationships Survey and AIDS Preventive Behavior, were asked
to assess the HIV/ AIDS- related knowledge of the participants (Bird et al., 2016, p.154).
Moreover, Risk Behaviors Assessment Questionnaire created by National Institute on Drug
Abuse were used to collect the demographic and socio-economic information of the participants
but didn’t mention the number of questions asked. The authors didn’t note whether they asked
these questions orally or in written. Furthermore, it is unclear whether the language used to ask
questions was comprehensible to all participants or not as it is not explicitly stated in the article.
The validity of the tool and the reliability of the study is provided by the author such as “the
spearman correlations for the two questions were r =072 and r =.78 (Bird et al.,2016, p.154)
“under the subheading “survey tools” mentioned in last line. “The survey’s reliability in
assessing the participants’ self-reported status was found adequate (Kappa coefficients =.78 to
1.00) (Bird et al.,2016, p.154)”.