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Assessment Task 3
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Scenario 2

“Cranberries contain a substance that can prevent bacteria from sticking to the walls of the bladder. This may help reduce bladder and other urinary tract infections.” (Craig, et. al, 1998)
The use of cranberry juice to effectively treat a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) is not a heavily studied topic, but some people believe that it can be used to treat a UTI.
This essay will discuss the scenario of a 22-year-old woman, Susan, who is suffering from a UTI, who wishes to drink cranberry juice as part of her treatment, instead of taking her prescribed antibiotics. Wanting to receive the best treatment for her condition, she decides to investigate further about the use of cranberry juice as a treatment for UTI’s.

PICO Question Development
The research that is being undertaken is using the framework of a PICO question. A PICO question is framed by studying the four elements of a clinical investigation: Population, Intervention, Comparison and Outcome. (Liampattong, 2013). The population in this scenario is Females aged 18-30. This age range is the most common ages for females to contract a UTI. It is important that the age range is specific so that the PICO question can be answered. Intervention for this scenario would be the use of antibiotics and the comparison would be to drink cranberry juice. The outcome is based on the ability to compare the between the two groups, and so is if cranberry juice would effectively treat a UTI. From the PICO steps we can develop the PICO question of: do females between the ages of 18-30 have a higher treatment rate using antibiotics than those who drink cranberry juice?
Searching For Evidence
The key words used in this research are: Urinary Tract Infection, UTI, 18-30 years old, females, cranberry juice, antibiotics. The alternative words would be: treatment and condition. Words that could broaden the search terms while still being about the topic are synonyms of the key words.

The four specific databases that were used in this research are, Cinahl, Medline, Joanna Briggs and Cochrane Library. All of these databases were chosen because they provided up to date peer reviewed evidence that was relevant to the search terms. This ensures that the evidence that was found was relevant and reliable. The Cinahl website was useful to gather background information on the topic such as how a UTI is contracted and how it effects the body. The Cochrane Library and Medline website was useful to because it gave specific information on studies that had already been done by other researchers. This helped to ensure that the study that is being undertaken was searching for the right results.

Types of Evidence
The five types of evidence that have been secured when researching are as follows. The pieces of evidence are in numerical order, where 1 is the strongest evidence found and 4 is the weakest. 1. Craig, JC., Jepson, RG., Mihaljevic, L., (1998)
Craig, Jepson, Mihaljevic provided a clear and understandable analysis of the use of cranberries in the treatment of UTI’s. Their evidence shows that the use of cranberry capsules when the person knows that they may receive a UTI (in surgical catheters) reduces the contractibility by half. This evidence was relevant to the PICO question.
The analysis was found in the database of systematic reviews.

2. Arbor, A (2015)
Arbor provided a concise and clear analysis of the use of cranberries to prevent a UTI. This evidence shows that cranberries would not effectively treat a UTI. This evidence was very relevant to the PICO question stated above.
Cinahl (2015)
Cinhal provided the research with the background knowledge of the contractibility of UTI’s. This evidence was somewhat relevant to the PICO question. 3. Munn (2015)
Munn provided the research with anatomical terms and information on where a UTI infects and an analysis on how cranberries could be used to prevent a UTI. This evidence was somewhat relevant to the PICO question.

References

Arbor, A. (2015). Nihgov. Retrieved 25, August, 2015, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25882919

Cinahl. (2015). Ebscohostcom. Retrieved 25, August, 2015, from https://www.ebscohost.com/nursing/products/cinahl-databases/cinahl-complete

Craig jc, jepson rg, mihaljevic l. (26/10,1998). Cochrane. Retrieved 25, August, 2015, from http://www.cochrane.org/CD001322/RENAL_still-waiting-for-evidence-about-whether-cranberries-are-a-useful-treatment-for-urinary-tract-infections

Munn, Z. (2015). Joannabriggslibraryorg. Retrieved 25, August, 2015, from http://joannabriggslibrary.org/index.php/jbisrir