Psychology - Evaluate a Current News Story on Research Findings

Evaluating Scientific Information                                                                  AP PSYCHOLOGY[pic 3]

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Part 1: Evaluate a Current News Story on Research Findings (25 points)

Read a current article on a research finding in a news magazine. You can access your article on the magazine’s website if you wish. Be sure that the article is about a research finding, not just a news story about politics or current events. The article should talk about some “finding” that has been found through research. Magazines like Newsweek, Time, Discovery, and Scientific American are some good sources. Then, answer the following questions on your article. Your answers to the questions below should be complete. If information is missing or cannot be found in your news article, indicate that you were unable to find it. If there are more than one or two questions you cannot answer, look for another news story.

1. Describe what the research was about.

• The research was about the likelihood of people with Type 2 diabetes having a kidney disease.

2.How was the sample population selected? Is a random sample used?

• Patients were randomly assigned to receive empagliflozin or placebo once a day.

3.Do you feel that this population gave a fair and unbiased result?

• Yes, this population gave a fair and unbiased result because the investigators used over 7,000 patients from almost 600 sites in 42 countries. Also, all the patients received the same dosage.

4.How were subjects selected?

• I was unable to find out how the subjects were selected.

5.Was there a control group? If so, how were participants assigned?

• There was a control group that received placebo and they were assigned randomly.

6.What was the independent variable?

• The independent variable was the empagliflozin and the placebo.

7.What was the dependent variable?

• The dependent variable was the risk of getting a kidney disease.

8.Were any extraneous variables identified? If so, how were they controlled?

• Even though empagliflozin was decreasing the likelihood that the patients would get a kidney disease, there was a competing risk of death from cardiovascular causes. So the researchers had to prescribe a certain dosage of empagliflozin to those patients who had a higher blood pressure.

9.Was there any evidence of experimental bias?

• No, there was no evidence of experimental bias.

       10.Were the conclusions based on significantly measurable data?

• Patients with Type 2 diabetes who were at high risk for cardiovascular events, empagliflozin slowed the progression of kidney disease.

1. Can you offer one way you feel the research could be improved? How so?

• The researchers stated that the results were observed in a population of patients whose blood pressure was well managed. They also stated that they studied a small sample size of black patients. The researchers should continue to research in broader populations to validate their findings.

1. What is the source of this research study? Provide the name of the author(s), the date the article appeared, the title of article, the publication in which it appeared, and the web address where you found it.

• The source of this research is from the Department of Medicine, the Division of Nephrology, Würzburg University Clinic, and Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma, Ingelheim; the Section of Endocrinology at Yale University School of Medicine, the Biostatistics Center at George Washington University, the Divisions of Cardiology and Endocrinology at the University of Toronto, and the Lunenfeld–Tanenbaum Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital; and Boehringer Ingelheim Norway.
• The authors are Christoph Wanner, M.D., Silvio E. Inzucchi, M.D., John M. Lachin, Sc.D., David Fitchett, M.D., Maximilian von Eynatten, M.D., Michaela Mattheus, Dipl. Biomath., Odd Erik Johansen, M.D., Ph.D., Hans J. Woerle, M.D., Uli C. Broedl, M.D., and Bernard Zinman, M.D
• The article, Empagliflozin and Progression of Kidney Disease in Type 2 Diabetes, appeared on June 14, 2016. It appeared on The New England Journal of Medicine and was found on the address http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1515920#t=articleBackground

Part 2: Short Response (5 points)