An Overview of Systematic Reviews
An Overview of Systematic Reviews was written by Margot Skinner, Lizhou Liu, Suzanne McDonough, Leon Mabire, and George David Baxter. The goal of this study is to employ several levels of evaluation to create an evidence hierarchy relating to a patient who falls with injury in a nursing home and most likely has a bruise on the back and neck. The paper will critically appraise the stated article's review of the literature by identifying its level of evidence and also critique the critical points that it delivers to the reader. Concerning the systematic review of a lesser acupuncture using a controlled procedure used for the treatment of the back and a neck pain as seen from the Acupuncture for Low and Back Pain: An Overview of Systematic Reviews.
Summary of the Findings of the Literature Review
The topic of the review is that as the evidence about the effectiveness of the acupuncture especially on the low back pain (LBP)seems to be inconsistent, the article aimed at critically appraising the evidence following the relevant systematic kind of reviews. The results of the analysis showed that 16 exact type of reports were assessed. The article points out that the methodological quality of the study was low and also the validity of the external aspects was weak. On the side of acute, LBP, a prove that acupuncture contains a more favorable effect as compared to the sham acupuncture when it comes to relieving the pain was found to be inconsistent. The review therapy includes a similar effect when it comes to improving its functionality. When it comes to chronic LBP, the article points out that evidence is consistently shown that acupuncture offers a short-term proved to have clinically related benefits for relieving pain and the overall functional improvement compared with the lack of treatment or the acupuncture plus an addition of any other conventional kind of intervention (Liu, Skinner, McDonough, Mabire, & Baxter, 2015).
Critical Appraisal
The Acupuncture for Low and Back Pain: An Overview of Systematic Reviews used various methods on database search. The first one is the search strategy. Here, a full type of the computer-help literature was carried out in the following databases since their inception up to February 2014: EMBASE, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, AMED, and two Chinese databases. The Wan Fang Database and China Knowledge Infrastructure that incorporated the 'grey literature' for instance the conference reports and the dissertations. Some of the terms that were utilized include 'systematic review or meta-analysis, and acupuncture therapy, or acupuncture points, or electro-acupuncture and many others to make the selection. The author utilized the Boolean operators, and the search was majorly geared in selecting adult participants.
The article meets the criteria for a systematic review since it aims at addressing various research findings. It identifies, critically doing the evaluation, and also doing the integration of the research findings of all the high-quality individual studies, relevant ideas that address one or more study questions (Baumeister & Leary, 1997; Bem, 1995; Cooper, 2003). The article in the review has established the depth in which the current research and how it has progressed in addressing a health solution aspect. Secondly, the material is able in identifying the associations, gaps, contradictions, and the inconsistencies in the literature, and the exploration of the reasons for these discrepancies, therefore proposing a new conceptualization that accounts for various differences identified. Accordingly, the article is systematic, objective replicable, transparent and objective. The article in the review has incorporated a routine search of database technique in locating various studies that address a specific research question, and also the systematic synthesis and presentation of the features and findings of the results of the concerned search. The article has identified itself as in the abstract, introduction, and in the methodology section. The author has outlined the kind of databases they searched, and the type of the articles included and excluded.
In the review article, the included items were those of the systematic reviews of the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that were in a position to evaluate the effectiveness of the acupuncture compared to the controls for any kind of LBP. The following outcome is utilized: functional improvement, pain relief, effectiveness rate, and overall improvement. Majorly, the sources are primary since they are first-hand accounts from dissertations and conference reports. I am confident that the articles selected are primary sources since they are direct from an event or the source, such as the conference reports and dissertations reports. On the other hand, secondary sources are anything written concerning something that is not the primary account of whatever the kind of that source is referencing, for instance, a textbook talking about the declaration report. Therefore, secondary sources provide an interpretation or the analysis of the sources. Therefore, dissertations and conference reports as identified from the literature review are the accounts of the primary sources.
The article points out that a general type of the computer-help literature was carried out in the following databases since their inception up to February 2014: EMBASE, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, AMED, and two Chinese databases. First, the Wan Fang Database and China Knowledge Infrastructure that incorporated the 'grey literature' for instance the conference reports and the dissertations. The article was published in 2015 implying that the included items were up to date in giving the corresponding information (Lee et al., 2013).
Clinical Practice Connection
The article points out that for chronic LBP, consistent evidence indicates that acupuncture is mostly more effective especially in treating pain relief and also the functional improvement concerning the short-term- follow-ups when comparing to the no treatment program or when it is utilized with another conventional type of therapies. As a result, this kind of information is crucial towards more significant clinical effects. Through these findings, it is motivating to point out that acupuncture, either utilized in isolation or conjunction with other conventional therapies, is demonstrated to be an effective in treating patients. Therefore, it should be incorporated into the clinical practice options especially for patients suffering from chronic LBP and ought to be implemented in the routine clinical kind of practice. Taking into consideration the intractable nature of LBP, more efficient, comprehensive therapy options, that may incorporate acupuncture, are required in optimizing the current management situation.
Conclusion
The objective of the paper was to use various levels of review in creating evidence hierarchy relating to the patient falls with injury in nursing homes and probably have a bruise on the back and the neck. We analyzed the article review article is the Acupuncture for Low and Back Pain: An Overview of Systematic Reviews, whose primary objective was to summarize and to critically appraise the kind of evidence concerning the relevant systematic reviews and to offer a comprehensive evaluation on the therapeutic importance of the acupuncture for the LBP. The results of the study, therefore, indicate that acupuncture stands to be more efficient clinically mainly for pain relief and also the functional improvement as compared to no treatment at the level of short-term follow-ups. Based on the systematic reviews of the articles, acupuncture as an aid towards the conventional therapy offers a short-term clinically critical improvement in functional measures and pain, especially for the treatment of the chronic low back pain. Therefore, this method should be utilized in the clinics to treat patients who fall with injury in nursing homes.
References
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Liu, L., Skinner, M., McDonough, S., Mabire, L., & Baxter, G. D. (2015). Acupuncture for Low Back Pain: An Overview of Systematic Reviews. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2015, 1-18. doi:10.1155/2015/328196
