Annals Journal Club: Causes of Dizziness in the Elderly

doi:10.1370/afm.1122

The Annals of Family Medicine encourages readers to develop a 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

HOW IT WORKS

In each issue, the Annals selects an article or articles and provides discussion tips and questions. We encourage you to take a RADICAL approach to these materials and to post a summary of your conversation in our online discussion. (Open the article online and click on “TRACK Comments: Submit a response.”) You can find discussion questions and more information online at: http://www.AnnFamMed.org/AJC/.

CURRENT SELECTION

Article for Discussion

Maarsingh OR, Dros J, Schellevis FG, et al. Causes of persistent dizziness in elderly patients in primary care. Ann Fam Med. 2010; 8(3):196–205.OpenUrl Abstract/FREE Full Text

Discussion Tips

This article provides an opportunity to consider the causes of a common symptom among elderly patients seen in primary care.

Discussion Questions

What question(s) are addressed by this article?
Why is this study needed beyond previous research on this topic?
How strong is the study design for answering the question?
To what degree can the findings be accounted for by:
1. How physicians and their patients were selected or excluded?
2. How the main variables were measured?
3. Confounding (false attribution of causality because 2 variables discovered to be associated actually are associated with a third factor)?
4. Chance?
How strong are the methods for linking participating patients’ dizziness and the cause to which it was attributed?
How much does the Delphi procedure used to develop the evaluation protocol enhance your judgment of the appropriateness and completeness of the protocol?
What are the main study findings?
How does the sensitivity analysis aid your interpretation of the findings?
How comparable is the study sample to your practice? What is your judgment about the transportability of the findings?
How might this study change your practice?
What important researchable questions remain?

REFERENCES

↵
Stange KC, Miller WL, McLellan LA, et al. Annals Journal Club: It’s time to get RADICAL. Ann Fam Med. 2006;4(3):196–197. http://annfammed.org/cgi/content/full/4/3/196.
OpenUrl FREE Full Text