Critical Review and Analysis of a Published Epidemiological Research

 

Identity of the article

Matthews, C. E., Cohen, S. S., Fowke, J. H., Han, X., Xiao, Q., Buchowski, M. S., ... & Blot, W. J. (2014).

Physical activity, sedentary behavior, and cause-specific mortality in black and white adults in the Southern Community Cohort Study. American Journal of Epidemiology,

Part 1: Summary of the Article

At the time of the study, the authors were leading researchers at the Nutritional Epidemiology Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute. Noteworthy, most recent studies have indicated that there is a relationship between health behaviors such as sedentary life and physical activities and mortality risks associated with a number of diseases such as diabetes and cancer.

Therefore, the purpose of the study was to determine and examine the relationships between health behaviors (sedentary life and physical activities) and cause-specific mortality among the adults.
To achieve these objectives, the researchers developed an intensive review of literature, focusing mainly on the relationships between different diseases associated with adults and lifestyle.
From this review, it was found that one of the previous studies pro-vides separate estimates of these associations for black men.

Consequently, the researchers found that there was need for empirical data to examine the associations among overall physical activity level, sedentary behavior, and mortality rates in black adults.
A study hypothesis was developed as “overall physical activity level is inversely associated with all-cause, cardiovascular and cancer mortality rates among black adults, while sedentary behavior is directly associated with these risk factors”.

The researchers further estimated the risks for black men and the joint contributions of the overall sedentary behavior and the level of physical activity. In addition, the researchers included the associations in some white participants as an approach for making comparisons.

To tests the hypothesis above, the researchers developed an empirical study that aimed at following up the two study groups.

Specifically, a quantitative prospective cohort study was designed to help in assessing the disparities in the rates of chronic diseases among the urban and rural communities.
The study area was based in 12 states in the southeastern United States Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky.
Given that the study design was based on a cohort approach, there was need to follow up the participants and examine their outcomes after exposure