Associations of Maternal Vitamin D Deficiency with Pregnancy Outcomes

This research proposal examines the association between maternal Vitamin D deficiency and pregnancy complications in developing countries. The study, based on a systematic review, explores the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency, its impact on maternal and neonatal health outcomes, and potential interventions. The research aims to determine the connection between vitamin D deficiency and pregnancy-related complications, formulating a hypothesis and research question to guide the investigation. The methodology involves a systematic review of databases like PubMed, CINAHL, and Cochrane, using specific inclusion and exclusion criteria to select relevant research articles. Data collection focuses on observational and literature review studies, with ethical considerations and analytical approaches outlined. The proposal discusses the strengths and limitations of the systematic review approach and concludes by emphasizing the importance of addressing vitamin D deficiency in developing countries to improve maternal and child health outcomes. The report includes a summary of a systematic review on maternal vitamin D deficiency and its associations with pregnancy and neonatal complications in developing countries.

Running head: HUMAN NUTRITION RESEARCH STUDIES
UNDERSTANDING HUMAN NUTRITION RESEARCH STUDIES
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1HUMAN NUTRITION RESEARCH STUDIES
Rationale of research study
Vitamin D deficiency is one of the major concern health condition for pregnant women in
majority of the Asiatic countries and it is evident from recent research articles that majority of
the population of these countries are not even aware of the need of vitamin D [1]. Further, in
gestational period vitamin D deficiency has been seen to affect the neonate however, very less
information are being provided to such mothers having low rate of vitamin D in their body [2].
Therefore, this systematic review assignment was carried out so that evidences from recent
research articles could be collected and by collecting and analyzing data from these studies, the
rate of such deficiencies and interventions could be obtained [3]. The aim and research question
of the assignment will also be developed so that answers related to such deficiency and its
association with neonatal complication prevalently in developing countries could be understood.
Aim
The primary aim of this section will be understanding the association of Vitamin D
deficiency with pregnancy and neonatal complications in developing countries and for this
purpose, the systematic review approach will be used to determine latest research studies.
The research question
The research question deduced from the abovementioned aim of this research assignment
will be:
How the deficiency related to vitamin D affects pregnancy and causes neonatal
complications in developing countries?

2HUMAN NUTRITION RESEARCH STUDIES
Hypothesis
The hypothesis of this research article will be associated with the research aim and
question as the primary aim of this research is to determine the connection between vitamin D
deficiency and neonatal or pregnancy related complication.
H1: Vitamin D deficiency is the primary reason for the pregnancy related complications
and neonatal complications in most of the developing countries around the world.
H0: Vitamin D deficiency is the not the reason behind pregnancy related complications or
neonatal complications around the world.
Feedback from previous section
In the previous section, systematic review was used to find research articles based on the
research question and in the course, several research articles related to this was found that helped
to understand the prevalence of this deficiency in developing countries. Therefore, in this
research proposal, systematic review will be used as a method to find research papers related to
the research aims and hypothesis and from those articles, few competent articles will be selected
to determine the answer to the research question.
Data collection
Systematic review is the method in which, articles from several databases are collected
using permutation and combination of several specific keywords and then the articles found are
sieved through several inclusion and exclusion criteria [4]. These criteria increases the reliability,
acceptability and authenticity of the research and make scope for the future research. For this
research question, systematic review has been chosen as the method and due to that databases

3HUMAN NUTRITION RESEARCH STUDIES
such as PubMed, CINAHL, and Cochrane and google scholar will be used to search for latest
research articles. After collecting the results, articles will be selected using several inclusion and
exclusion criteria. In this course, the inclusion criteria will be English language, articles
published in last 5 years, primary research articles, and with a proper methodology and data
collection section, whereas the exclusion criteria will be research articles more than 5 years and
having abstract or descriptive theories [5]. Therefore, in this method the participants will be the
research articles that has been selected for the review process in this research, and the study type
will be observational and literature review. Researchers mention that data collection method in
systematic review method should be done depending on the population or type of study used in
the original research articles as the reliability and authenticity of the research is intact in such
methods [6]. Therefore, all the data of selected research articles will be combined in this research
assignment and depending on their prevalence, analysis will be conducted.
Besides these, ethical considerations are the most important aspect of systematic review
and hence, to make the research ethically competent, all the ethical considerations will be taken
into consideration. All those papers included in the study should comply with the ethical
standards and should have approval of any reputed organization [7]. Further, all the places where
the research was conducted was provided with details related to research and the participants
were asked for consent permissions or not, should be taken into consideration. This will help to
increase the authenticity of the paper and people round the world will be able to trust on the
research findings as participants were informed about the interventions and they did not went
through any harm in the course of the research [8].

4HUMAN NUTRITION RESEARCH STUDIES
Analytical approach
This is the most crucial section of this research as the papers included for the systematic
review were primary research articles and varied in their type of study or chosen research such as
few were qualitative and few were quantitative study. Therefore, while analyzing the research
findings, the major findings of the researches and the intervention they used to obtain answer of
their research question will be considered [9]. After that, all the studies and their outcomes will
be collected and they will be combined to provide a compact study result and then the result will
be analyzed to provide a holistic description of the research question and the research findings.
After that, all the aspects of the research papers will be taken into considerations and present bias
will be assessed so that authenticity of the research assignment can be determined [4]. After
analyzing all the aspects, and research findings, the research answer related to the research
question will be derived from the systematic review research analysis.
Strength and limitations
Systematic review research approach has several strength and limitations using which the
reliability and authenticity of the research could be enhanced. The advantages of using
systematic review as the research process includes analysis of clinically relevant research
interventions without conducting any research in real scenario [10]. Therefore, the time and
expenses of doing such research in real scenario is avoided and a proper statistical analysis on
pre-conducted research findings could be done to find an authentic and applicable research data.
Further, the statistical data analysis standards are helpful in determining the removal of bias and
proving genuine research results [11]. Finally, it increases the efficiency and applicability of the
research findings to a larger population as it includes a larger population or subject on whom the

5HUMAN NUTRITION RESEARCH STUDIES
research intervention is applied and hence, it provides a sense of security to the researchers to
conduct the research in real scenario [10].
On the other hand, the limitations, of the research approach includes unavailability of
research articles within the required time frame as older or irrelevant literature decreases the
authenticity and acceptability of the research [11]. Besides this, the exact source of research
heterogeneity is not detectable and the researchers suffer from complications in detecting
heterogeneity. Further, it also affects the statistical analysis of the paper due to variations in
research process, study population and research data [12].
Conclusion
Deficiency of vitamin D deficiency is one of the major concern of developing countries
as maximum of the pregnant women suffering from this deficiency are unaware of the
requirement of vitamin for their and their children’s development. This research therefore used
systematic review method to find research articles and find competent research articles so that
research papers compatible to proposed research question and hypothesis could be found. Further
the method of data collection and analysis was also included in this proposal so that conduction
of research becomes authentic and reliable and can be applied to future research studies.

6HUMAN NUTRITION RESEARCH STUDIES
References
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Association between maternal serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D level and pregnancy and
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