Analyzing a Quantitative Nursing Research Study

This assignment delves into the analysis of a quantitative research article, 'Self‐weighing and simple dietary advice for overweight and obese pregnant women to reduce obstetric complications without impact on quality of life: a randomised controlled trial' by McCarthy et al. (2016). It examines key elements of the research, including the methodology, ethics, findings, and conclusions drawn from the study. The assignment highlights the application of quantitative research methods in nursing and explores the implications of the findings for clinical practice.

Running Head: Nursing
Nursing
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
The assignment deals with the review of the quantitative research article, “Self‐weighing
and simple dietary advice for overweight and obese pregnant women to reduce obstetric
complications without impact on quality of life: a randomised controlled trial” by McCarthy et
al. (2016). In response to the article, different elements of the research paper are described.
Quantitative research
Quantitative research can be defined as systemic and objective process of using the
numeric data to obtain information on particular domain of interest, describe the variables
explain the cause and effect relationship between the variables (Creswell, 2013). Quantitative
research is based on the deductive logic that starts with hypothesis and collection of data to
evaluate the hypothesis. The data is collected to identify the empirical evidence based on the
topic.
Methodology
Research methodology can be defined as the scientific method of conducting research to
solve a problem systematically involving the use of different criteria and methods to research.
Methodology simply refers to way of solving the problem (Creswell, 2013).
In the quantitative paper by McCarthy et al. (2016), randomised controlled trial was
chosen as research design in the “Australian tertiary obstetric hospital. The chosen quantitative
research article is based on the health issue obesity and deals with the overweight and obese
pregnant women. The methodology used in this study is the randomisation of the participants,

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which in this case is women. The participants in the intervention group are targeted to simple
dietary advice and serial self-weighing. Those in the control group are targeted to standard
antenatal care. The participants chosen were women with singleton pregnancy who are
overweight or obese non-diabetic. The sample size was 382. The inclusion criteria were selecting
pregnant women who are less than 20 weeks gestation. The overall methodology appeared to be
well designed to determine the obstetric outcomes of dietary advice to pregnant and obese
women when compared to the standard antenatal care.
Ethics of the study
Research ethics can be defined as issues that are arising when human beings are involved
in any research as participants and involves considering the ethical, political, social and legal
issues (Faden et al., 2013). In the chosen article, the author has obtained the ethics approval from
the “Mercy Health Board Human Research Ethics Committee R10/16” in 2010 (McCarthy et al.,
2016). It was ensured by the author that the participant’s health and quality of life is not
hampered due to the intervention. The participants were recruited through written informed
consent and the research midwife gave the relevant information to them. Only English speaking
women were considered to avoid the language barrier.
Findings
Research findings and results can be defined as the outcomes of the research being
conducted followed by its analysis and interpretations (Mertens, 2014). The results of the
quantitative paper showed that the obstetric complications could not be prevented by the
intervention designed by the author. There was no difference found between the intervention and

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the control group in regards to the mean gestational weight gain, CRP levels, adiponectin, and
leptin. The results were statically evaluated (McCarthy et al., 2016).
Conclusion
The assignment was helpful in developing deep insights of quantitative research
paradigm. It improved the experience of searching the literature to extract the required journal
article. The assignment was useful in understanding the concept of randomised control trial and
significance of research ethics.

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References
Creswell, J. W. (2013). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods
approaches (4th ed.). London, UK: Sage publications.
Faden, R. R., Kass, N. E., Goodman, S. N., Pronovost, P., Tunis, S., & Beauchamp, T. L. (2013).
An ethics framework for a learning health care system: a departure from traditional
research ethics and clinical ethics. Hastings Center Report, 43(s1). Doi:
10.1002/hast.134.
McCarthy, E. A., Walker, S. P., Ugoni, A., Lappas, M., Leong, O., & Shub, A. (2016). Self
‐
weighing and simple dietary advice for overweight and obese pregnant women to reduce
obstetric complications without impact on quality of life: a randomised controlled
trial. BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, 123(6), 965-973.
doi: 10.1111/1471-0528.13919
Mertens, D. M. (2014). Research and evaluation in education and psychology: Integrating
diversity with quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods (4th ed.). London, UK:Sage
publications.