Similarities and Differences, Limitations, and Controversies
Both O’Connor et al. (2016) and Zheng & Hu (2018) assess the social factors that contribute to diabetes mellitus only that the former article is original research. In contrast, the latter is a report from secondary sources. In both articles, diabetes is associated with lifestyle factors that lead to coronary heart complications. In both articles, the United States is recognized as being among the top nations where diabetes is prevalent among nations. In both cases, complications arising from diabetes mellitus include kidney failure, retinopathy, and diabetic neuropathy, among other cardiovascular illnesses.
On differences, O’Connor et al. (2016) employs qualitative research techniques, whereas Zheng & Hu (2018) uses quantitative methods. The latter article relies on prospective observational studies alongside random clinical trials to arrive at the conclusions on type 2 diabetes mellitus in the American and Asian continents. In O’Connor et al. (2016), scientific studies from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) database reports on the behavioral risk factors that contribute to the prevalence of diabetes and coronary heart illnesses.
None of the articles express the presence of any biases to the studies as none of them cite any form of competing interests. One limitation that arises is in O’Connor et al. (2016)’s study, which reports that some initially selected participants exhibited an unwillingness to respond to the research questions thus were excluded from the study. Additionally, this article also states that the use of cross-sectional and self-reported data is a limitation to the study. The nature of questions used by O’Connor et al. could pose severe limitations to the research.
Analysis of Evidence Presented, Identifying What is known, unknown, and requires further study.
Both articles report that susceptibility to diabetes diagnosis is higher among individuals residing in rural settlements compared to urban dwellers. This implies that individuals in developing nations are more likely to succumb to diabetes compared to developed countries since most developing nations have rural settings. In the USA, for example, diabetes mellitus contributes to a reduction in patients’ lifespan by eight years, which makes the disease a high threat to life expectancy (Zheng & Hu, 2018). Zheng & Hu (2018) propose that further studies on gestational diabetes mellitus would be critical in the management and control of this type of diabetes, which is under-researched.
References
O’Connor et al, (2016). Rural-urban disparities in the prevalence of diabetes and coronary heart disease. Public Health, 126(10), 813–820.
Zheng, Y., Ley, S. H., & Hu, F. B. (2018, December 8). Global aetiology and epidemiology of type 2 diabetes mellitus and its complications. Nature Reviews Endocrinology, Vol. 14, pp. 88–98.