Journal Article Analysis of

Association of obesity with osteoarthritis in elderly Korean women

Through the study of the journal article, they found that body mass index (BMI)

was an important demographic variable affecting the prevalence of

Osteoarthritis(OA), I have a certain understanding of the whole article (Park & Lee,

2011). According to the assignment requirements, my journal article analysis is

divided into three parts. In the first part, I analyze the overall structure of the article,

in which I roughly summarize the content of the article, analyzed the specific

structure of the article, analyzed some details of the research and writing, and offered

reasonable explanations for features of the article; The second part is a rhetorical

analysis, including research purposes and other elements; The third part, I analyze the

introduction section by Move 1,2 and 3 (Swales & Feak, 2012; Park & Lee, 2011).

Part I. Overall structure of the article

I will make a brief summary of this article: because osteoarthritis is a common

disease in older adults, the authors investigated and assessed the association between

obesity and osteoarthritis in older Korean women by a randomized sampling survey

(Park & Lee, 2011).

This article has a very typical structure, the IMRD structure (Park & Lee, 2011).

In fact, there are subtitles in the article are introduction, method, result, and discussion

(Park & Lee, 2011).

Specifically, in the introduction, Park and Lee (2011) presented information on

osteoarthritis, the exigence in contemporary research, mentioned to the association

between obesity and osteoarthritis and the purpose of this article. In the method part,

Park and Lee (2011) introduced their data sources, the definition of sample variables,

and the statistical methods, they also used Table 1 at this part to express their

statistical analysis. In the result part, Park and Lee (2011) elaborated the result of data

processing and gives the corresponding table, they used Table 2, 3, 4 at this part to

state their data of the result. In the discussion part, Park and Lee (2011) stated that

obesity is indeed associated with the prevalence of osteoarthritis, and suggested that

the data show other factors such as education level, BMI, and alcohol intake also have

an impact on the prevalence of osteoarthritis. In addition, the authors discussed the

possible causes and the limitations of their research (Park & Lee, 2011). In my

opinion, the authors’ overall article structure is clear and logical, which is excellent

(Park & Lee, 2011).

This research is no doubt a quantitative research (Park & Lee, 2011). Because the

authors used detailed data from 3,750 people, which was obtained through systematic

sampling surveys, and the authors conducted a detailed statistical analysis of the data

(Park & Lee, 2011). About the use of visual data, the authors use 4 tables to show all

the data on the prevalence of osteoarthritis and various factors (Park & Lee, 2011).

In this article, the authors’ citation style is IEEE (Park & Lee, 2011). The authors

also mentioned that their study was based on data from the KNHANES 2005–2008,

which included a health and nutrition survey and a medical examination (Park & Lee,

2011, p. 66). Therefore, the research is a new research because there was no study to
examine the correlation between obesity and osteoarthritis in older Korean women,

but they used existing data (Park & Lee, 2011).

First of all, the structure of the whole article is very simple and clear, because the

structure of IMRD is very suitable for this kind of research articles related to data and

statistics (Park & Lee, 2011). Secondly, in this study, the authors’ definition of

variables is very detailed, which is very rigorous and greatly increases the credibility

of the whole article (Park & Lee, 2011); In the process of data processing, the authors

took into account the age of the sample population, education level, economic status,

smoking status, and drinking status, there are scientific ways of defining each factor

(Park & Lee, 2011). However, if the author added a blank control group to the data, it

might show a certain causal relationship between osteoarthritis and obesity (Park &

Lee, 2011).

Part II. Rhetorical analysis

The title of this study is the association of obesity with osteoarthritis in elderly

Korean women (Park & Lee, 2011).

The purpose of this study is to assess the association between osteoarthritis

prevalence and obesity in older Korean women (Park & Lee, 2011).

As for the exigence, because Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most common

sources of pain and disability among elderly people. Many genetic, demographic, and

personal characteristics are involved in the risk of OA, of which obesity is one of the

most important. (Park & Lee, 2011). Epidemiological studies have shown a link

between osteoarthritis prevalence and obesity, but the relationship between obesity
and osteoarthritis prevalence differs across ethnic groups (Park & Lee, 2011).

Therefore, the authors claimed that there had been no study on the correlation

between obesity and the prevalence of osteoarthritis in older Korean women (Park &

Lee, 2011). So that is the exigence of the study.

The relevance of this research is the association between obesity and

osteoarthritis, and specifically, this research is relevant for at least 4 groups (Park &

Lee, 2011): Firstly, it is no doubt that this research is important for Koreans,

osteoarthritis in older adults can lead to huge risks, and Park and Lee (2012) pointed

out that the prevalence of osteoarthritis was associated not only with obesity, but also

with education levels, alcohol, smoking, and age (Park & Lee, 2011). It is a social

issue, whether Korean old people or the Korean government, Korean medical

institutions, Korean young people, even Korean health insurance institutions all have

different aspects of relevance in my opinion. Secondly, I think this study is relevant to

medical researchers all over the world, because the association between osteoarthrosis

and obesity varies among different ethnic groups, and this study fills a part of the

epidemiological gap (Park & Lee, 2011). Thirdly, I think this study is relevant to

public health statistics because the data processing methods used by the authors and

the details of variable definitions are of great reference value to public health statistics

(Park & Lee, 2011). Fourthly, obviously, this study is also relevant to future

researchers, as the authors have already indicated that there are some limitations in

this study, which need to be further studied through genetics and immunology (Park &

Lee, 2011).
Part III. Analysis of the introduction section

Through the Moves in research paper introduction, I analyzed the introduction

section of this article sentence by sentence (Swales & Feak, 2012; Park & Lee, 2011).

1. “Arthritis is one of the most common joint disorders in the world and is the

leading cause of physical disability among elderly people.” (Park & Lee, 2011, p.

65)

This sentence is Move 1a, because it introduce the importance of Arthritis to us

briefly (Swales & Feak, 2012).

2. “Although various classifications exist, including osteoarthritis (OA) and

rheumatoid arthritis, all forms of arthritis induce morbidity and disability in

individuals with this disorder.” (Park & Lee, 2011, p. 65)

This sentence is Move 1a and maybe kind of 1b, because it just gives us the idea

of osteoarthritis, but it is also based on modern medical theory (Swales & Feak,

2012).

3. “The most common form of arthritis is OA, which affects approximately 27

million people in the USA.” (Park & Lee, 2011, p. 65)

This sentence is Move 1b, because some of the existing statistics data from

pervious literature are used (Park & Lee, 2011; Swales & Feak, 2012).

4. “Because OA is characterized by late-onset degeneration of the articular cartilage,

the prevalence of OA increases dramatically with age.” (Park & Lee, 2011, p. 65)

This sentence is Move 1b, it continues to explain osteoarthritis (Park & Lee, 2011;

Swales & Feak, 2012).

5. “Women have a higher prevalence of OA than men, but the underlying causes

responsible for the increased susceptibility of women to OA still need to be

investigated.” (Park & Lee, 2011, p. 65)

This sentence is Move 2, because it indicates a gap in previous research (Park &

Lee, 2011; Swales & Feak, 2012).

6. “Although the risk factors are not completely understood, OA is known to develop

as a result of an interaction between genetic and environmental risk factors.” (Park

& Lee, 2011, p. 65)

This sentence is Move 1b, because it contains existing statistics (Park & Lee,

2011; Swales & Feak, 2012).

7. “Epidemiological studies have suggested that genetic factors account for 39–65%

of OA.” (Park & Lee, 2011, p. 65)

This sentence is obviously Move 1b (Park & Lee, 2011; Swales & Feak, 2012).

8. “Other important demographic risk factors include obesity, female sex, and older

age.” (Park & Lee, 2011, p. 65)

This sentence is Move 1b, because the last sentence is relevant (Park & Lee, 2011;

Swales & Feak, 2012).

9. “Especially, the association between obesity and OA is stronger in women than in

men.” (Park & Lee, 2011, p. 65)

This sentence is Move 1b, because the content is coherent (Park & Lee, 2011;

Swales & Feak, 2012).

10. “Additionally, the prevalence of OA is reported to be associated with

 socioeconomic characteristics, including income, education, and occupation.”

(Park & Lee, 2011, p. 65)

This sentence is Move 1b (Park & Lee, 2011; Swales & Feak, 2012).

11. “Consequently, epidemiological studies have found significant variation in the

prevalence of OA according to demographic and socioeconomic characteristics,

including obesity.” (Park & Lee, 2011, p. 65)

This sentence is Move 1b, because previous epidemiological studies were cited

(Park & Lee, 2011; Swales & Feak, 2012).

12. “In particular, many epidemiological studies have focused on the relationship

between obesity and the prevalence of OA within specific population groups.”

(Park & Lee, 2011, p. 65)

This sentence is Move 1b, because it still talks about epidemiological studies

(Park & Lee, 2011; Swales & Feak, 2012).

13. “However, partially owing to the differences in race/ethnicity of the participants in

each study, findings regarding the association between obesity and the odds ratios

(ORs) for OA have not been consistent.” (Park & Lee, 2011, p. 65)

This sentence is Move 2, because it starts pointing out some existing gaps (Park

& Lee, 2011; Swales & Feak, 2012).

14. “Although race/ethnicity may represent an important risk factor for arthritis, no

studies have examined the correlation between obesity and the OR for OA among

elderly Korean women.” (Park & Lee, 2011, p. 65)

This sentence is Move 2, because it is the exigence in this article (Park & Lee,
2011; Swales & Feak, 2012).

15. “Therefore, this study investigates this association in Korean women aged 50

years or older using Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

(KNHANES) data from 2005 to 2008.” (Park & Lee, 2011, p. 65)

This sentence is Move 3a, because the purpose of the study is explained (Park &

Lee, 2011; Swales & Feak, 2012)

Through the analysis of the whole article, I learned that the excellent journal

articles in my field need to have enough convincing data as the support of the

argument, and at the same time, the data must be analyzed to draw conclusions.In the

use of language, it is not necessary to use complicated rhetoric, but it must be concise

and easy to understand.

References

Park, H., & Lee, S.-K. (2011, 9). Association of obesity with osteoarthritis in elderly

Korean women. Maturitas, 70, pp. 65-68. doi:10.1016/j.maturitas.2011.05.014

Swales, J. M., & Feak, C. B. (2012). Academic Writing for Graduate Students:

Essential Tasks and Skills. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.