IHP_340_Short_Paper.docx Research Methods Southern New Hampshire University IHO-340

IHP_340_Short_Paper.docx    Research Methods  Southern New Hampshire University  IHO-340    Research Methods  œAlcohol consumption among first-time mothers and the risk of preterm birth: a cohort study was an observational study. In this study, the authors obtained information byMoBa questionnaires given to46,252 mothers at week 15 of gestation informing them whether they consumed alcohol before or during pregnancy or not and how often. The authors then collected data from the Medical Birth Registry of Norway to determine if the babies were born preterm (before week 37). Based on the research question, this is by far the most appropriate approach to finding a statistical answer. An experimental method could not have been implemented in this case because there is not a variable that can be controlled. The study included both qualitive and quantitative data. Alcohol consumed or not was qualitive, but most of the data was quantitative. For example, in this dataset, only 5.9% (2729 of 46252) of the pregnancies resulted in preterm birth.   According to the article, the analyses were computed with PASW software, version 22.0(Dale, Bakketeig, & Magnus, 2016). Numerous mothers who took the questionnaire were excluded so the results of this study would closely isolate alcohol consumption from other factors. Such factors that were eliminated include: births before the perinatal period commenced at week 22, multi-births and multiparous mothers. The study could potentially show weakness in that they used questio