Methods, Surveys, and Data Used in Macrolide-Resistant Mycoplasma Pneumoniae Research

Research Design
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Research Design
Part 1
 Chen et al. (2020) explored how macrolide resistance affected the manifestation, clinical judgment, and outcomes of Mycoplasma pneumoniae infections in pediatric community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). The focus was on macrolide-resistant Mycoplasma pneumoniae because macrolides are widely used as the first-line therapy for Mycoplasma pneumonia. Due to the high prevalence of macrolides, there has been a rise in the resistance rate, especially in Japan and China, where the resistance rates are over 90%. The results of this investigation revealed a reduced efficacy of macrolides on macrolide-resistant Mycoplasma pneumoniae. They also showed that macrolide resistance did not affect manifestation, although it changed clinical judgment because second-line therapies were used increasingly for patients with macrolide-resistant Mycoplasma pneumoniae. 
           Chen et al. (2020) conducted a meta-analysis involving a systematic literature search on various databases. The initial search included 1,100 articles, and after review and exclusion, a meta-analysis of 24 pieces was conducted. It was evident that the researchers used a meta-analysis approach because they combined the numerical data from various studies conducted in the Asia-Pacific region using a statistical method. Specifically, the researchers used the Review Manager Software version 5.3 and the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis version 3 to analyze the systematically reviewed literature for an informative meta-analysis. The researchers synthesized and summarized the results and conducted a statistical analysis on the studies to provide a more precise estimate of how macrolide resistance affects the manifestation, clinical judgment, and outcomes of pediatric CAP. 
           In this article, surveys did not play any role since the researchers relied on data from various previous studies. There was no use of any primary data in the report. 
The quality of the data obtained in each independent article was assessed based on the quality of the specific studies. The researchers identified and eliminated poor-quality non-randomized studies in their review using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. This ensured that only good-quality studies with good quality data were included. Also, the researchers used mean differences to calculate summary statistics for the continuous data. However, it is unclear how the researchers accounted for missing data in each independent study. There is always a likelihood of missing data in the original research, especially when participants are excluded from the study mid-way. This should be accounted for because it affects the quality of data analyzed in the meta-analysis. Also, it is unclear whether the researchers included randomized studies that reported no event in either the control or intervention group. The inclusion and exclusion of such studies reflect the data contained ...