Medical Research Results - Essay Example

The tables used are as follows: Infants with Selected Nonsyndromic Birth Defects (Cases) by Type of Defect and Clinical Diagnosis, Characteristics of Mothers of Infants with Selected Nonsyndromic Birth Defects (Cases), and Mothers of Infants without Birth Defects (Controls), Frequency of Maternal Diabetes among Mothers of Infants without Birth Defects (Controls) and Mothers of Infants with Selected Nonsyndromic Birth Defects (Cases) and Associated Effect Estimates, Frequency of Periconceptional Multivitamin Supplement Use among Mothers of Infants without Birth Defects (Controls) and Mothers of Infants with Selected Nonsyndromic Birth Defects (Cases) Associated with Maternal Diabetes and Associated Effect Estimates by type of Defect, and Unadjusted Estimates (Ors) for Maternal Diabetes, Use of Multivitamin Supplements During the Periconceptional Period, and Selected Nonsyndromic Birth Defects (Correa, 2003).

It appears that the article and the researchers are very credible, but the report lacks complete information when it comes to reporting the results of the study. They do not include seemingly important information such as the brand of vitamins the study subjects were taking, what type and severity of diabetes the mothers of the infants had, and the like. Other than that, it appears that all results were reported.

The information is aged, so there is a good chance this study acted to plant a seed in getting women to take nutritional supplements, especially if they had been diagnosed as being diabetic and were pregnant.
This leads to the conclusion that the use of multivitamins during pregnancy may reduce the chances that a mother with diabetes will give birth to a child with birth defects (Correa, 2003). The conclusion, which is listed as the last sentence in the paragraph above, is appropriate to the results.  Furthermore, the conclusion that was reached was supported by the data that was presented in the tables that came along with the research study.  A discussion of implications is included near the results section of the study and is larger than the results section itself.  The study does not discuss future research but does refer a lot back to prior research that has been conducted on the topic in past research studies of a similar type (Correa, 2003). There is one point that appears in Table 5 that the authors fail to mention, but that is interesting and worthy of note.  Women without diabetes who took multivitamins during pregnancy had a 120/424 chance of giving birth to a child with birth defects.  This is particularly noteworthy since the subjects for the study were selected based on having birth defects, but the control group did not have diabetes while the rest of the mothers did (Correa, 2003).   LIMITATIONS The authors do discuss the limitations of the trial in the discussion section. They claim that the information regarding the status of diabetes and the taking of multivitamins were taken from the mother’s words instead of produced in the study.  Therefore, it could not be verified or detailed.  This means that, in the study, they could not distinguish between type 1, type 2, and gestational diabetes or see if that affected the study outcomes in any way (Correa, 2003).     The authors did strongly attempt to give a justification for these limitations.  Although limitations may seem purely negative, that is not necessarily the case.  They can give great ideas to those who plan on conducting future research on a topic.  If the limitations are significant, then future researchers will know to take measures to avoid those types of limitations in their studies (Correa, 2003).

REFERENCES The first thing that is apparent about the references is that they are aged.  There are 33 total references used.  Whereas this does not mean that the data is bad, it does mean that it is not fresh and has not had modern technology applied to it.  This means that their references do not incorporate new or cutting-edge, advanced research (Correa, 2003).     A lot of books and journals are used, especially when quotations appear, which helps to add credibility to the study.  Very few or no websites are used, which may also point to the age of the study, but that also helps add credibility to the sources. A lot of the references specifically mention birth defects, mothers of children with defects, and/or diabetes, which also aids in adding to their credibility (Correa, 2003). Read More