Male Pattern Baldness Solutions for Men
Most men diagnosed with hair loss research their medical condition online. When researching anything in medicine, you will certainly come upon research studies or references to studies.
Whether you are dealing with men’s hair loss or female hair loss or alopecia, unless you live in the world of academia, you probably don’t have much exposure to academic research and how it is conducted. Therefore, it’s easy to assume that all research is valid and to take study findings at face value. Research findings are often difficult to decipher, but a little bit of knowledge can take you a long way. Here are eight quick tips on how to get the most from reading research articles.
When it comes to Men’s Hair Replacement solutions, beware of hyperbole. Be skeptical of websites that cite research that has found “the answer” to any medical issue. Medical research is extremely complex. Even the most proficient researcher only finds a small piece of a large puzzle in any one project.
Watch out for causation claims. Causation and correlation are often used interchangeable, but they have very different meanings. Causation speaks to a cause and effect relationship. Correlation speaks to a relationship between two phenomena. For example, there may be a correlation between hair loss and stress (the more stress someone endures the greater the likelihood of hair loss), but there may not be causation. We are not certain that stress causes hair loss, but we know there is a relationship between the two.
- Understand study designs. Take a look at the design of the study to gain more information. Was the researcher using interviews? Standardized tests? Were they examining people at one point in time or across several years? After you’ve studied the design, ask yourself what effects the design might have on the results.
- Look at the funding source. If you look at the bottom or top of the first page of the article, you will find the funding source. Check to see who funded the study. Did a pharmaceutical company or a hospital fund it? Was it supported with a private grant?
- Take note of the journal. The journal that published the article tells you something about the focus of the article. If a hair loss article was written in a journal for psychology the focus will be different than if it was written for a journal of epidemiology.
- Examine the sample. Who were the people who were utilized for the study? If you’re a woman reading an article to learn about hair loss and the sample was all men, results may not be relevant for you. Or, if the sample was all people who lost hair due to chemotherapy, results may not be applicable to you as a person struggling with alopecia.
- Research the authors. Take a quick look at the authors’ names, places of education, and place of employment. Where was the study conducted? Was it conducted at a university, a hospital, or somewhere else? The article should list the review board that authorized the study, which can give you an idea on where the study was conducted.
Understanding how to critically read research articles is essential to staying informed. It is very easy to believe that a research study has found “the answer” to your problems if you don’t ask the right questions. Be an educated research consumer by questioning what you read and digging for more information.
