Nutritional Journal Critique

NutritionalJournal Critique

NutritionalJournal Critique

Associationof Obesity with Primary and Secondary Infertility among InfertileWomen in Turkey (2017). The authors, Feray Cağiran Yilmaz, MetinSaip Sürücüoğlu and Fatma Tanilir Cağiran are professionalsworking closely with fields linked to the above topic of study. Ferayworks with the nutrition and dietetic department at Ankara Universityin the faculty of health sciences while Metin works in a similardepartment as Feray in the Cyprus international university and thethird author Fatma works in the department of gynecology andobstetrics in Diyarbar Obstetrics and Gynecology of Maternity andChild Health Hospital in Turkey. They are known competed writers inthe field of both nutrition and maternal health. They have publishedseveral journals in the recent years and thus the credibility oftheir research work is accredited. The journal is the fourth in thefifth volume 2017 in the science and education publishers.

Thetitle of the journal is of adequate length and attracts the curiosityof the potential readers and this makes it more appropriate. Thetopic is also easily understandable with no use of ambiguous words. The abstract is short and precise and gives adequate overview of thecontents of the journal which includes a summary of the researchquestions, methodology analysis of the collected data and the resultswith a conclusion.

Thepurpose of conducting this study is to find out the association ofmacronutrients and energy required in a day with the hormone profilesand anthropometric measurements of the female gender. This followsthe release of data which revealed that the number of infertilecouples as well as obese cases has increased in the recent past inTurkey. The authors have successfully described adequate detailsconcerning their study thus the aim of the study is well justified.This a practical study because their study population is easilyavailable and does not require a complex procedure to undertake theresearch. The flow of the ideas is also recommendable since they aresystematically elaborated without making the paper seem complex.There is no literature review discussed as a topic but the authorshave incorporated most of the information which should have otherwisebeen discussed in this section in the introduction part. No models,constructs or theories have been discussed in this paper and thusdenies the study strength which would otherwise be boosted by use ofa theoretical framework. The objectives have also been establishedalthough not well enumerated and correspond to the topic.

Thesample population included infertile women who visited the Departmentof Obstetrics and Gynecology of the Maternity and Child HealthHospital in Turkey during the study duration. The sample size was 100whereby 65 had primary infertility and 35 with secondary infertility.The inclusion criteria discussed is the women within the age of 20-42and are infertile. No exclusion criteria were discussed. This samplesize is essentially small compared to the entire population thus theyshould have used a larger sample to make the process more standardand a true representation of the population. The research wasapproved by the Ethics committee of Ankara University on the researchprocesses that involved people as the subjects and the studyconducted in accordance with the guidelines given in the Declarationof Helsinki. The subjects also were also provided with explanationson the process both verbally and via a written form before givingconsent. This was a positive gesture since their study involveddirect interaction with women with infertility which is a sensitivepart of their life.

Operationaldefinitions are a necessity in all research works. In this journal,the authors failed to include some of these definitions which areoften used by the readers to understand better. They are essentialdue to the fact that not all the people understand the differentterminologies commonly used in various departments. The methodologyapplied during this study was cross-sectional study design. Itinvolved taking of anthropometric measurements by the researcher andcollection a 24-hour food consumption data through interviews. Thesamples for fasting blood sugar were collected on day three of themenstrual cycle and hormonal levels of TSH, FSH, prolactin and LHmeasured and measured. This was the most appropriate dependent on thetype of study to be conducted. The type of method chosen makesdifficult to reproduce the study since it involved random selectionof subjects.

Datacollected was analyzed using the SPSS 21.0 window versions andresults provided as a ±standard error of the mean. The normality ofthe data was tested using the Shapiro-Wilk and Kolmogrov–Smirnovtests while the Mann-Whitney U was used to assess disparities betweenthe anthropometric measures and the other measures such asmacronutrient measures and hormone levels. The majority of thedifferences in the results between the two groups were statisticallyinsignificant except for the secondary infertility subjects whodemonstrated a positive association between their body weight and BMIand the levels of prolactin level. The statistical analytical methodswere clearly described and are efficient in provided standard resultseasy to interpret.

Thediscussion of the study elaborated more on the expected findings. Itis evident that some of the results were unexpected as perinformation gathered in the literature review. This can be attributedto some of the limitations of the study such as the small samplepopulation which the authors suggest that triggers the need to do asimilar study but with larger populations. The other limitations arethe lack of a control group to compare the hormone profile,macronutrient intakes, anthropometric measurements and the dailyenergy. The discussion and conclusions are adequate for they havecovered most the required content. The authors failed to make anyrecommendations in their conclusions in relation to their significantfindings. The references provided were enough but some were toobackdated to be relevant in the current society set up. The list ofreferences cited include books, theses and journals and used wasconsistent with the APA style.

References

Yilmaz,F., Surucuoglu, M., &amp Cagiran, F. (2017). `Associationof Obesity with Primary and Secondary Infertility among InfertileWomen in Turkey.Journal of Food And Nutrition Research, 5(4), 208-213.