Critical Appraisal of Literature Review Writing Assignment

CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF LITERATURE REVIEWByInstitution
Abstract
Obesity has emerged as a threat to many people, due to its association with lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and cancer. Many health programmes that aim to help people shed off extra weight exist, but lack of enough data to substantiate the effectiveness of these methods remains the major bottleneck (Murphy & Barr, 2005). This is an appraisal of a study done by Truby, Baic, Fox, Livingstone, Logan, Macdonald, and Millward, to identify the viability of four commercial dietary programmes. These programmes include the Dr. Atkins diet revolution, Rosemary Conley, Weight Watchers, and Slim-Fast dietary programmes. The study utilizes a double-blinded randomized trial where 300 participants take part in the exercise. This method of randomization helps avoiding bias caused by preconceived ideas or knowledge (Sibbald, & Roland, 1998). Each group consist of 60 participants taking the exercise through five stations. The participants undergo assessment at beginning of the exercise, at two months, at six months and at 12 months to track the changes in weight, body fat, cholesterol level and blood pressure (Truby et al. 2006). The analysis of the data from these participants provides information regarding participants’ behaviour and the viability of each programme. The study showed that participants who adhered to the respective dietary patters managed to shed at least 10% of their body weight. Participants also tended to favour dietary programmes that involved group participations.
Critical Appraisal of Literature Review
Introduction
The research study; Randomised controlled trial of four commercial weight loss programmes in the UK: initial findings from the BBC “diet trials”, done by Truby and others in 2006, aims to compare the effectiveness of four different commercial weight losses diet programs. According to Truby et al. (2006), the pervasiveness of obesity and the dangers associated with it is increasing daily in the United Kingdom, with almost half of the population being overweight and getting in danger of being obese. The National Health Services incurs a cost of $0.9 billion annually, with the general economy affected by an annual additional expenditure of £2 billion (Vlad, 2003). Despite the introduction of effective commercial weight loss diets, the diet plans remain poor due to lack of dedication to weight loss (Butland et al. 2007).
The weight loss industry is very profitable. It has attracted players who developed weight loss programmes such as Slim-Fast Plan, Weight Watchers, Dr. Atkins new diet revolution, and Rosemary Conley’s diet (Truby et al., 2006). In the paper, the authors argue that there is no substantial data from these weight loss programmes to aid in making a clinical judgement on the recommended approach towards healthy living. According to Bowling (2014), medical and health services research is essential in knowing the health needs of the population in order to gather data that aid in choosing the appropriate efficient, cost-effective and reliable health services for people at all levels. It also aids in the assessment of the quality of services offered and auditing of the health practises to improve pat...