Annals Journal Club Selection

Jan/Feb 2008

The Annals Journal Club is designed to encourage a learning community of those seeking to improve health care and health through enhanced primary care. Additional information is available on the Journal Club home page.

The Annals of Family Medicine encourages readers to develop the learning community of those seeking to improve health care and health through enhanced primary care. You can participate by conducting a RADICAL journal club, and sharing the results of your discussions in the Annals online discussion for the featured articles. RADICAL is an acronym for: Read, Ask, Discuss, Inquire, Collaborate, Act, and Learn. The word radical also indicates the need to engage diverse participants in thinking critically about important issues affecting primary care, and then acting on those discussions.¹

Article for Discussion

Richardson CR, Newton TL, Abraham JJ, Sen A, Jimbo M, Swartz AM. A Meta-Analysis of Pedometer-Based Walking Interventions and Weight Loss. Ann Fam Med. 2008;6:69-77.

Discussion Tips

The following article provides helpful background information on meta-analyses. It is available at http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/315/7121/1533. Egger M. Meta-analysis: principles and procedures. BMJ.1997;315(6):1533-1537.

Discussion Questions

What questions are addressed by the article? Why do they matter?
Is a meta-analysis a reasonable way to answer the research questions? Why?
What are the main findings?
To what degree can the findings be accounted for by:
1. How studies were selected (inclusion criteria and search strategy)?
2. How data were extracted from the parent studies for analysis?
3. Limitations in the original studies or their reporting of key information?
4. Confounding (false attribution of causality because 2 variables discovered to be associated actually are associated with a 3rd factor)?
5. Publication bias (that is, positive studies being more likely to be published)?
6. Chance?

Reference

Stange KC, Miller WL, McLellan LA, et al. Annals journal club: It�s time to get RADICAL. Ann Fam Med. 2006;4:196-197. Available at: http://annfammed.org/cgi/content/full/4/3/196.

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