Literature review data
This literature review data came from searching online databases and credible websites. A search of the heading was conducted on the Luria Library. An initial search yielded 4914 results. The search was refined by including only peer-reviewed journals with open access. Further filtering was done by including journals not older than ten years. These were journals published between 2011 and 2020. The remaining search results were refined, depending on relevance. Clicking on a journal’s link led to more details about it, including a brief description of the study involved and, in most cases, a summary of findings. A further link was provided to access the journal’s full text. Depending on the filtering of results done, this link led to a third party database called directory of open access journals, which required login. The login credentials were the same as those of the Luria Library. Full text formats provided were HTML, XML and portable document format (PDF). A more generalized search was also conducted on the Luria database using the Boolean term “and” and “or.” Search terms included several combinations of words like “dementia,” “Alzheimer’s disease,” “nutrition,” “diet,” “food,” “direct,” and “effects.”
A general search was conducted on the internet using the Google search engine to find relevant and credible websites. Search terms used included “dietary patterns,” “diet effect on dementia and Alzheimer’s disease,” origin of the Mediterranean diet,” “origin of the MIND diet,” “origin of the DASH diet,” “history of dementia,” “history of Alzheimer’s disease,” “types of dietary patterns,” “remedies to dementia and Alzheimer’s disease,” “treatment for dementia and Alzheimer’s disease” and “single foods that prevent dementia and Alzheimer’s.” Only websites whose domain ended with .edu, .org, .gov, and int. were selected. These were further selected depending on relevance to the subject of study. These searches were conducted within four days, beginning 23rd July 2020 to 27th July 2020. No human subjects were involved.
Inclusion Criteria
For the Luria database, only peer-reviewed journals and articles with open access were included. Peer-reviewed journals were selected to ensure the reliability and accuracy of the information obtained. Open access made it possible to easily obtain a journal’s or an article’s full text without incurring additional costs. Only journals and articles published within the past ten years were considered. This period is between 2011 and 2020. It was done to ensure the information sought was relevant to current trends. In most cases, only journals and articles containing the term “dementia” or “Alzheimer’s” or both were considered. Again, this was to ensure relevance. For websites, only those whose domains ended with .edu, .org .gov, and .int were included. Domains ending with .edu usually belong to universities or higher learning institutions, those ending with .gov belong to governments, and those ending with .int belong to international organizations. These were considered to be reliable sources of information. Due diligence was taken to ensure the specific institution involved was credible for those websites ending with .org.
Exclusion Criteria
For the Luria library database, any journal or article that was not peer-reviewed was excluded. Journals and articles written by individuals and not reviewed by fellow professionals were excluded. This filtering was to ensure irrelevant, inaccurate, unreliable, and biased data was not included. Any peer-reviewed journal that was ten or more years old or was published before 2011 was excluded as information contained in them may not have been commensurate with modern times. Journals and articles without open access were also excluded to avoid difficulties in full accessibility. For websites, those whose domain did not contains sub-domains .edu, .org, .gov, and .int were excluded. Of those ending with .edu, .gov, and .int, those that lacked relevance to the subject of study were excluded. Articles on the websites that were ten years or older were also excluded. For those website articles with no date of publishing indicated, consideration was taken to determine their relevance.
Assumptions
This review assumes that all the sources of information cited are ethical, correct, reliable, and accurate. For peer-reviewed journals, it is assumed that the reviewers were truthful and honest in doing their work and that these journals present credible information for this study’s purposes. Information from government and educational websites and all organizations cited in this study is deemed to be reliable, accurate and unbiased
Limitations.
As is the case with most studies, this one too was prone to limitations. One of the constraints was time. The research was conducted within four days. The research had to be conducted under a tight schedule to ensure accuracy and reliability. Access to data was another constraint. Not all relevant databases available online could be accessed. However, this constraint was amicably resolved by using open access journals, which are in plenty and are considered quite reliable and accurate.