Synthesis matrix/critical appraisal 1-5

Author/ Date	Aim of Study	Type of literature + type of method	Result /Conclusion	Strengths + limitations	Thematic codings	Setting/ Context
Flocker (2012)	The aim of this study is to explain the social, economic and political factors that play into the safety farmers and the families of farmworkers in regard to pesticides	Policy, ethnography	There is a tremendous injustice done to pesticide farmworkers and to their families. Their health is put in danger due to a lack of safety regulations	Strengths: incorporates many different aspects of the problem including a detailed background on the demographics of the farmworkers and their families. It also explains the effects of pesticides on health Limitations: could use more data	Hispanic immigrants Poverty Socioeconomics Health problems	USA crop farms residential homes
Hu et al. (2015)	To study the long-term and short-term effects of pesticide exposure on farmers including effects on blood and nervous system	cohort	The farmworker’s nervous system was effected mainly by effecting the sensory nerves. Blood count also dropped	Strengths: the quantitative data of this study was detailed. A big strength was that both the long-term and short-term effects were shown. Limitations: The study did not talk about the farmers socioeconomic situation	Cohort Health effects pesticide	China
Snipes et al. (2009)	To use community-based ethnography and public health risks assessment to measure risk perception of pesticide exposure among farmworkers in the U.S.	Ethnography	The results concluded that farmworker perception of pesticide risk varies with the type of pesticide	Strengths: included detailed discriptions of farmworker risk perception. It also described barriers that could limit safety. Limitations: Did not give detailed description of farmworkers demographic and socioeconomic situatuion	Risk analysis Pesticide exposure Types of pesticides	USA pesticide farms communities
Beard et al. (2013)	The aim of this study is to study the effects of pesticide exposure on health	Cohort, RCT	The results showed that pesticide exposure was linked with increased leukemia cases and chronic illnesses such as asthma	A strength that this study had was that it tested for different effects on health than most studies. Liminations: many of the measured illness were self-reported by the farm workers	Chronic illness Chemical exposure	Australia Farms
Boone et al. (2014)	to study the regulation of pesticides that are in place in the U.S. or lack thereof	Policy research	the current regulatory system is highly bias	Strengths: a big strength was that the study went above and beyond to expose the bias qualities of regulatory research Limitations: the study did not explain if all pesticides lack the same regulation	Policy Regulation pesticides	USA Farms

Research Journal #3

Article #1
Source in APA:
Nicolopoulou-Stamati, P., Maipas, S., Kotampasi, C., Stamatis, P., & Hens, L. (2016). Chemical Pesticides and Human Health: The Urgent Need for a New Concept in Agriculture. Frontiers in Public Health. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com.unr.idm.oclc.org/ps/i.do?p=HRCA&sw=w&u=reno&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA458634778&sid=summon&asid=af213805255f1e768b5c7c089a91b84e
What kind of source is it?:
Research/comparative
How is the source relevant to my research? 
This source is relevant to my research because it explains the most commonly used pesticides and their effects on human and environmental health. It also suggests alternative agriculture methods that do not include pesticides.
How will this source be used in my results section?
The way that I can incorporate this source into my results section is maybe by explaining the different pesticides that are explained in this article. This could be useful background information on pesticides and also to add detail to my research paper.
One interesting thing:
One interesting thing that this article mentions is that a possible effect of a commonly used pesticide by the name of organophosphorus pesticide could be dementia. I do a lot of volunteering with elder people suffering from dementia so this caught my attention more than anything else.

Article #2
Source in APA:
Roberts, D., & Aaron, C. (2007). Managing Acute Organophosphorus Pesticide Poisoning. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 334(7594), 629-634. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.unr.idm.oclc.org/stable/20506725
What kind of source is it?:
Causation/association
How is the source relevant to my research? 
This source is relevant to my research because it talks about organophosphorus pesticide, a very commonly used pesticide in agriculture. Specifically, this study talks about the poisoning associated with this pesticide.

How will this source be used in my results section?
If I use article #1, which also talks about organophosphorus, then I could use this article to add onto the other and vise versa. They both supply interesting and relevant information about this specific pesticide. 

One interesting thing:

From this article I learned that organophosphorus is the leading cause of toxicity and death by pesticides worldwide. I also learned that this is a more serious problem in developing countries.

Article #3
Source in APA:

• Rao, P., Quandt, S. A., Doran, A. M., Snively, B. M., & Arcury, T. A. (2007;2006;). Pesticides in the homes of farmworkers: Latino mothers' perceptions of risk to their children's health. Health Education & Behavior, 34(2), 335-353. doi:10.1177/1090198106288045

What kind of source is it?:
Research/behavioral ethnography
How is the source relevant to my research? 
This article is relevant to my research paper because in my paper I would like to include a background of who are the people directly working and being impacted by pesticides. This source takes a twist on that and studies the risk-perception and behaviors of the families of pesticide farmers.

How will this source be used in my results section?
This source could be used in my results section to give a face to farm worker's health risks from pesticide exposure. 

One interesting thing:

I found it very interesting that the majority of farm workers who are directly in contact with pesticides are Hispanic. This could add a very interesting twist to my research. 

Article #4
Source in APA:
Flocks, J. D. (2012). The environmental and social injustice of farmworker pesticide exposure. Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law & Policy, 19(2), 255.
What kind of source is it?
Policy
How is the source relevant to my research?
This source talks in great detail about the barriers and challenges that farm workers face, especially if they are a minority. These challenges pave the way for safety concerns which is where public health prevention can play a huge role.  

How will this source be used in my results section?
I can use this source in my result section to help explain the challenges that come with pesticide safety regulations on a more individual, human level. 

One interesting thing:

Something very interesting that this article mentions is that big pesticide/crop companies will deliberately not enforce safety regulations for the farm workers in order to save money. Although this is easy for me to believe it still upsets me that for those big companies money is more valuable than the health of these workers.

Article #5
Source in APA:
Salvatore, A. L., Castorina, R., Camacho, J., Morga, N., López, J., Nishioka, M., & ... Bradman, A. (2015). Home-based community health worker intervention to reduce pesticide exposures to farmworkers' children: A randomized-controlled trial. Journal Of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology, 25(6), 608-615. doi:10.1038/jes.2015.39
What kind of source is it?
RCT
How is the source relevant to my research? 
This relates to my research paper in the way that I want to do a wholesome research on pesticides including the health effects that pesticides have on nonfarmworkers and this study gives me the information that I need.

How will this source be used in my results section?
This source can be coupled with the other article that I mentioned in this assignment about the risks on the families of pesticide farm workers. I could relate both of them to eachother, compare and contrast, and supplement the information from them. 

One interesting thing:

From this study I learned that even those who are not directly in contact with the pesticides are still negatively affected. 

In class work 2/6+2/8 Methods

1. Hu, R., Huang, X., Huang, J., Li, Y., Zhang, C., Yin, Y., … Cui, F. (2015). Long- and Short-Term Health Effects of Pesticide Exposure: A Cohort Study from China. PLoS ONE, 10(6), e0128766. http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0128766
2. Cohort
3. The authors of this study use the cohort method to study the long-term and short-term effects on blood and neurological functions upon pesticide exposure. This cohort study included 246 agricultural farmers from three different provinces in china that are regularly exposed to pesticides. Neurological and blood examinations were administered by doctors before and after exposure to pesticides to test for adverse effects.
4. The results of this study concluded that the long-term effects of pesticide exposure among the farmers indicated an abnormality in nerve functioning, especially in sensory nerves. The short-term effects indicated a change in blood count, a decrease of renal function, and a slowness of the nervous system.
5. One interesting thing from this study was that the short-term effects could not be seen 3 days after exposure but the long-term effects were seen even after 3 years of exposure.

1. Michelle D. Boone, Christine A. Bishop, Leigh A. Boswell, Robert D. Brodman, Joanna Burger, Carlos Davidson, Michael Gochfeld, Jason T. Hoverman, Lorin A. Neuman-Lee, Rick A. Relyea, Jason R. Rohr, Christopher Salice, Raymond D. Semlitsch, Donald Sparling, Scott Weir; Pesticide Regulation amid the Influence of Industry. BioScience 2014; 64 (10): 917-922. doi: 10.1093/biosci/biu138
2. Policy
3. This study uses the policy method to study the regulation of pesticides that are in place in the U.S. or lack thereof. The authors use the effects of pesticides on biodiversity such as amphibians as an example of the lack of proper pesticide risk assessment from the US Environmental Protection Agency. The study mentioned that there is a lack of information on the process of risk-analysis so this is why they decided to perform such study.
4. The conclusion of the study was that the current regulatory system is highly bias because most of the risk assessment studies are conducted by the pesticide manufacturing companies themselves and because most of the data are eliminated for review. The data on pesticides effects on biodiversity was also controlled so that the laboratories suggested that no further research be done on the subject. In summary, the current data on regulation of pesticides shows a conflict of interest among the pesticide companies.
5. Before reading this article, I did not know that the majority of regulation research is done by pesticide companies, and thus makes the whole thing very bias.

1. Shedra Amy Snipes, Beti Thompson, Kathleen O'Connor, Bettina Shell-Duncan, Denae King, Angelica P. Herrera, and Bridgette Navarro.  “Pesticides Protect the Fruit, but Not the People”: Using Community-Based Ethnography to Understand Farmworker Pesticide-Exposure Risks. American Journal of Public Health: November 2009, Vol. 99, No. S3, pp. S616-S621.doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2008.148973
2.  Ethnography
3. The authors of this article used community-based ethnography and public health risks assessment to measure risk perception of pesticide exposure among farmworkers in the U.S.
4. The results of the study concluded many things including:

• Farmworkers perceive powder pesticides as harmless
• Farmworkers do not prioritize handwashing after handling pesticides

       5. One thing that I found interesting from this study is that farmworkers perceived powder         pesticides as harmless.

1. Lu, C., Toepel, K., Irish, R., Fenske, R. A., Barr, D. B., & Bravo, R. (2006). Organic diets significantly lower children's dietary exposure to organophosphorus pesticides. Environmental Health Perspectives, 114(2), 260+. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com.unr.idm.oclc.org/ps/i.do?p=HRCA&sw=w&u=reno&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA143213734&sid=summon&asid=6b3e9681fcb18e60b96adcd3d3edec7f
2. Research
3. The authors of this study controlled the diets of 23 elementary-aged school children by only feeding them organic foods for five days. The researchers then took multiple urine samples of the children to test for organophosphorus pesticide, a pesticide commonly used on crops.
4. The results concluded that an organic diet significantly lowered exposure of organophosphorus pesticide in young children.
5. From this study, I learned that dietary intake is a major source of pesticide exposure in children. 

Research Journal #2

What is your topic? Or what are your key words thus far?
My topic is pesticide exposure and its effects on human health
My key words so far are:
-pestidices: chemicals sprayed on crops to prevent pests from eating them
-long-term effects:effects shown weeks or weeks after the exposure 
-short-term effects:effects shown minutes or days after the exposure
-cohort:
-farmers:those spraying the pesticides

What is your research question? Have you decided to change it at all? And, if you have, how do I know that the way in which this question is formulated is appropriate to conduct a literature review with a systematic approach? 

My research question is: What are the long-term and short-term effects of pesticide exposure on human health?

I took out the topic of environmental health from my question because I felt that for the purpose of this research paper I should focus on one area rather than two. I also added long-term and short-term effects to the question because I felt that this makes my question more specific. 

And what are the definitions on which it depends?

-long-term effects:effects shown weeks or weeks after the exposure 
-short-term effects:effects shown minutes or days after the exposure
-pesticides: chemicals used on crops to avoid pests
-human health: health of humans exposed to pesticides

I plan to use articles of studies done all over the world especially on farmers (both male and female) using pesticides

What is your hierarchy of evidence? And how do I know you going about finding the most appropriate evidence/method for your research question?

cohort
research
mixed methods
policy

Cohort will be most useful in my research because my topic clearly deals with causation association so this will be on the top of my hierarchy of evidence. Research will also be helpful because it will involve research done to answer the question of whether pesticides truly do cause adverse effects on human health. Because I am including research from all over the world, it would be helpful to include different cultures and their view of pesticide exposure so for this I think mixed methods would be useful. Policy of course plays a role in my topic because it deals with the safety of people.

How do I know that the remit of the method itself is selecting the research, rather than just you on a whim? + 1 thing you found interesting + how you imagine using the source

Article #1
Beard, J., Sladden, T., Morgan, G., Berry, G., Brooks, L., & McMichael, A. (2003). Health impacts of pesticide exposure in a cohort of outdoor workers. Environmental Health Perspectives, 111(5), 724–730.

This article directly relates to my topic because it is a cohort investigation on the effects of pesticide exposure. Along with other cohort studies, I plan to use this study in specific to discuss the prevelance of diabetes among workers who work with herbicides. I found it interesting that there was a link to diabetes because diabetes is usually something associated with weight and/or eating habits.

Article #2
Hu, R., Huang, X., Huang, J., Li, Y., Zhang, C., Yin, Y., … Cui, F. (2015). Long- and Short-Term Health Effects of Pesticide Exposure: A Cohort Study from China. PLoS ONE, 10(6), e0128766. http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0128766

This article relates to my topic because it is another cohort study. I plan to use this study to demonstrate occupational pesticide exposure in a country other than the U.S., in this case the country is China. From this article I found interesting that there was a correlation of liver diseases and pesticides. 

Article #3
Gilden, R. C., Huffling, K. and Sattler, B. (2010), Pesticides and Health Risks. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing, 39: 103–110. doi:10.1111/j.1552-6909.2009.01092.x

This article relates to my topic in the way that it is studying the effects on health, however, this time it is looking at fetal health. I plan to use this topic to potentially talk about the health effects on the pregnant wives of pesticide farmers who become exposed to these chemicals when their partner comes home from work covered in the chemicals. This may be a long-shot so I am not sure if I will end up using this article in my final paper. One thing that I found interesting is that there was a correlation found between pest. exposure and low levels of blood in the umbilical chord which of course causes other health effects. 

Article #4
Bhanti, ., Shukla, . & Taneja, . Bull Environ Contam Toxicol (2004) 73: 787. doi:10.1007/s00128-004-0496-8

This article relates to my topic by alluding to the mixed methods research method. I plan to use this article to show the perception, knowledge, and practice of pesticide use among farmers in India. From this article I learned that many developing countries ignore the safety regulations concerning pesticide use on crops. 

Article #5
Osteen, C. D. and Fernandez-Cornejo, J. (2013), Economic and policy issues of U.S. agricultural pesticide use trends. Pest. Manag. Sci., 69: 1001–1025. doi:10.1002/ps.3529

This article directly relates to the policy aspect of my topic. I plan to use this topic in discussing the current and past policies on pesticide trends in U.S. agriculture. Something interesting that the article mentioned is that about 95% of corn, cotton, and soybean crops are sprayed with herbicides.

Explain your topic

Research Journal #1

What was the process by which you narrowed down potential topics to two appropriate ones? And how were these decisions made on the basis of either class discussion, or our required, course textbook (Aveyard 2014), or both?

Pesticide use
Pesticide exposure and health
RCT
Effects of Pesticide use on health

What research question did you choose, and how are I can be sure you're making a reasoned, academic judgement on the basis of chapters 1-3 (Aveyard 2014)?

My research question is: What are the effects of pesticide exposure to human health? Are there long-term effects? Are people aware of the effects that pesticide exposure can have on their health? What are the effects on environmental health?

What article (or articles) are you basing this question on, and what type of article is it (research, theory, policy, practice) (citation[s] in APA, please)? 

Gilden, R. C., Huffling, K. and Sattler, B. (2010), Pesticides and Health Risks. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing, 39: 103–110. doi:10.1111/j.1552-6909.2009.01092.x

Snipes PhD, S. A., Thompson ScD, B., O'Connor, K., PhD, & Shell-Duncan, B. (2009). "Pesticides Protect the Fruit, but Not the People": Using Community-Based Ethnography to Understand Farmworker Pesticide-Exposure Risks. American Journal of Public Health,99(53), 616-621. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2008.148973

How can I be sure that the key vocabulary of the question corresponds not only to literature in the field, but also to chapter 1-3 (Aveyard 2014)?

On some resources such as on the American Journal of Public Health website I had some difficulties finding articles that used the key terms that I use in my question. On the knowledge center website, however, I had success in finding literature that used my key vocabulary. I made sure that the titles of the literature that I found contained the same words that I use in my question such as "pestide exposure", "health" "effects", etc. I also made sure that the literature that I plan to use are health-related and are peer-reviewed.

Based on what your question is, what kind of literature are you going to need? Again, please explicitly reference the text (Aveyard 2014). What is your hierarchy of evidence?

Based on my research question I plan on using a combination of both quantitative and qualitative literature. However, I believe that a cohort method would be most important because my topic involves association and causation. Perhaps literature in ethnography would be next in importance.

How exactly did you research question arise out of "practice"?

My research question arise out of "practice" by a process of trial and error. I brainstormed with many different things regarding pesticide use/exposure and most of the articles that I found kept alluding to the topic of effects on health.

How do you define your key terms, and how do these definitions link to key journals in the field?

Pesticides: most commonly used in agriculture

Pesticide exposure: first-hand exposure and/or secondary

Pesticide exposure AND human health

Pesticide exposure AND public health

Effects of pesticide exposure: effects meaning health effects and envornmental perhaps

Environmental impact of pesticide use

Did anything unexpected happen? From you initial search, does it appear as though your research question will work? Or does the vocabulary and/or type of research sought need to be changed?

On the websites of Public Health journals my search outcomes were very limited which stressed me out and worried me. I also found great literature in my environmental health textbook for one of my public health classes but I am not sure if I will be able to use that for my research paper. If I cannot use that textbook as a source for my paper then I will probably have to revise my question to not include environmental health 

worried

stressed

confused 

knowledge center=happy

also,most articles are very old on the American Journal of Public Health website💩

Any final thoughts?

Perhaps I will have to modify my research question to not include environmental health because 1.I can't find articles alluding to that but I did find a textbook with information on this 2. maybe a research paper on both human health AND environmental health would be too much.