Search terms, Reasons, and Article Citation
To select a research article for this lab, the major search term used was “frequency distribution” since frequency distribution is the focus of this task. To narrow the search and approach the topic of interest, the term “diabetes” was included. Diabetes is a popular research problem because this disease is a burden to contemporary health care and it is interesting to review the approaches used to manage this health issue in diverse clinical settings. The search was limited to full-text articles published within the latest 12 months. The search engine found 5,832 articles containing one or both search terms. The following research article was selected to analyze in this lab:
Ali, V. N., Tehrani, H., Imamian, H., Hamidreza, M. H., & Vahedian-Shahroodi, M. (2017). Impact of establishing a communication network of family physicians on level of Hba1c and FBS in patients with diabetes: A randomized clinical trial. Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal, 19(11), e14869.
Data in Frequency Table and a Conclusion
The selected study is a randomized control trial involving 100 patients in both experimental and control groups. It contains one frequency distribution table in the results section which is used to provide demographic data about patients involved in the study. Thus, the frequency table includes variables such as job (employed patients as well as unemployed and housewives), gender (male and female), and history of the disease (5-10 years and more than 10 years) (Ali, Tehrani, Imamian, Hamidreza, & Vahedian-Shahroodi, 2017).
Data are provided for intervention and control groups as well as total figures for all research participants. Thus, 72 participants are unemployed or housewives and 28 employed patients; 29 males and 71 females; and 74 individuals who have had diabetes from 5 to 10 years compared to 26 patients who have had diabetes for more than 10 years (Ali et al., 2017). The provided data are consistent because their values are measurable and the incidence of random error is minimal.
After reviewing the frequency distribution table, the following conclusion can be made. Thus, the distribution of different categories between intervention and control groups is almost equal. For example, there are 37 unemployed patients and housewives in the intervention group compared to 35 in the control group; 38 females in the intervention, and 33 females in the control group (Ali et al., 2017). Such distribution contributes to the reliability and validity of research findings.
Pros and Cons of Other Presentation Options
Frequency distributions can be presented in different ways. While the most popular and widely used method is a frequency distribution table, histograms and bar graphs can also be used. For this research data, a table is the most suitable way of demonstrating frequency distribution due to a limited number of categories. The table format represents data for intervention and control groups and depicts the distribution of participants according to variables.
A histogram can also be applied to present demographic distribution for this study. Moreover, a histogram can be more beneficial than a distribution table because its form allows the presentation of a graphic distribution, which is easier to understand. At the same time, a bar graph can be a bad choice for the study under consideration because it is more suitable for depicting more than two categories in a variable. Still, if it is important to focus on numeral data, a frequency distribution table is the most relevant choice.
Reference
Ali, V. N., Tehrani, H., Imamian, H., Hamidreza, M. H., & Vahedian-Shahroodi, M. (2017). Impact of establishing a communication network of family physicians on level of Hba1c and FBS in patients with diabetes: A randomized clinical trial. Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal, 19(11), e14869. Web.