Article Review – Short Communication on Probiotic Claim Substantiation
Abstract:
This article review focused on the analysis of the journal
article “More Information Needed on Probiotic Supplement Product Labels” by Merenstein
et al., 2019, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. The aim of
such a review was to communicate a short critique as well as highlighting the need
for fieldwork in regulatory compliance. Here, the review started with a general
summary of the article, but also in conjunction with the literature review that
the authors established. This was necessary to understand the article in its field
of expertise whilst giving a clearer purpose on the need for more fieldwork of this
kind. Without such understanding, it would have been difficult to understand the
regulatory compliance of dietary supplement label regulations in the US. Then, a
thorough analysis and deconstruction of the articles structure, as well as article
critique, were established. The authority of the paper and other topics such as
authority, accuracy, relevance, etc., were examined for effectiveness in conveying
the research question that the authors were concerned with; that more information
may be needed for product labels in probiotic supplements in the US. Lastly, the
graphs, tables, and figures were evaluated to make a conclusion about the study
as well as a discussion on the recent advances related to the label compliance of
probiotic supplements. The paper, albeit was on the shorter side, was effective
and was also simple in establishing a need for more information on the label. Thus,
more transparency on clinical substantiation is needed.
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